A strong Team Canada lineup easily handled a clearly rusty Hill United Chiefs squad , with an 8-3 victory in front of 200 fans on a cold, windy Friday night in Ohsweken.
Canada jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning when a Chiefs error at short stop followed by a couple timely put the National team on the board. Hill United starter Adam Folkard, just off a 36 hour flight from Australia, was uncharacteristically wild in allowing 3 runs on wild pitches in the 3rd inning and spotting the Canadian team an insurmountable 5-0 lead.
Winning pitcher Sean Cleary was very sharp on the mound for Canada but was removed from the game in the 3rd when he rolled an ankle delivering a pitch. Don Scott came on in relieve to end the inning but allowed the Chiefs some life when he gave up a 2 run home run to Jason Hill in the 4th. That was to be about as close as the Chiefs would get to surmounting any kind of come back though as the Team Canada used Sean Whitten and Devon McCullough to hold the Hill squad to just one more run the rest of the night
Jeff Farion finished the game on the mound for the Chiefs, relieving Folkard in the 4th. Farion found early trouble including back to back home runs by Derek Mason and Adam Hiller, putting the game on ice for the Canadian squad.
Canadian Coach Don Bates had to be very pleased with his team’s performance especially with his national team stalwarts Jeff Ellsworth, Steve Mullaley, Brad Ezekiel, Jason Sanford and Mark Johnson suiting up for the their club team Hill United Chiefs.
Team Canada wraps up their training camp in Brampton this weekend while the Hill United squad is back in action next weekend at the Hill United Snapper Shootout, June 20-22, at Lancaster Park in St.Catharines, Ontario.