MONCTON, N.B. – What started out on a promising note turned into a tough day for the P.E.I. Youth Selects at the 2018 Canada Cup 17-under baseball tournament on Friday.
Manitoba overcame a four-run deficit to outscore the Selects 11-8 in eight innings, and Nova Scotia defeated the Island squad 12-2 in six innings. The results leave P.E.I. with a 1-2 (won-lost) record, which includes a 7-5 win over Alberta on Wednesday.
Saturday, the Selects continue round-robin play against Newfoundland and Labrador at 8:30 a.m., and New Brunswick at 2 p.m.
Manitoba 11 Selects 8 (8 innings)
The P.E.I.-Manitoba game started on Thursday morning, but was delayed because of rain in the top of the second inning. When the game resumed early Friday morning, with Manitoba leading 1-0, P.E.I. tied the game in the bottom of the second and then scored four times in the bottom of the third to open up a 5-1 lead.
Manitoba answered back with a single run in the fourth and four in the fifth to take a 6-5 lead, but the Selects forced extra innings with a single run in the fifth. Manitoba took the lead for good with five runs in the top of the eighth inning, and the Selects countered with two in their final at-bat.
Offensively, Gabe Penalver had a 1-for-2 batting summary, with a walk, three runs scored and one run batted in (RBI), while Duncan Picketts went 2-for-4, including a run scored and an RBI, to lead the Selects, who fell to 1-1 (won-lost). Also recording hits for the Selects were Noah Duckworth, Josh Myers, Nic Havenga, Joel MacEachern and Ben MacDougall, who was the pitcher of record for the Selects.
Nova Scotia 12 Selects 2 (6 innings)
A four-run bottom of the fourth inning proved to be the difference for Nova Scotia, which took a commanding 7-2 lead into the fifth inning. Nova Scotia added on three more runs its half of the fifth, and scored twice in the sixth to win by the 10-run mercy rule.
Noah Duckworth had two hits in three at-bats and scored a run through five innings to lead P.E.I.
