WHITEHORSE,Yukon, Canada – The USA Softball Junior Men’s National Team split games on Saturday at the International Softball Federation (ISF) Junior Men’s World Championship in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of American and USA Softball announced today. The American’s fell to New Zealand 4-1 in their first game of the day but bounced back to defeat Czech Republic 8-4 in the nightcap. Phillip Zimmerman (New Holland, Pa.) picked up both the win as well as the loss in the circle for Team USA.
New Zealand 4, USA 1
Team USA took New Zealand deep into the ball game behind the pitching of Phillip Zimmerman (New Holland, Pa.). The Pennsylvania native held opposing batters scoreless while allowing just one hit through the first four innings. However, the American bats also struggled aside from a double in the second and single in the fourth from catcher Tyler Bouley (Champlin, Minn.).
The run-less score held until New Zealand managed two runs off of three hits in the top of the fifth inning. USA went three up, three down in the bottom half of the inning and New Zealand added two more runs in the top of the sixth to take a 4-0 lead. The score held to the bottom of the seventh and the USA Junior Men found themselves with one final at-bat to get back into the game. Bouley singled to start the half inning and two batters later Blaine Milheim (Easton Rapids, Mich.) singled to score the USA’s first run. With a runner on base and just one out, New Zealand’s Ethan Johnston struck out the next two USA batters securing the 4-1 win for his country.
Zimmerman finished the game having given four runs on five hits while striking out six New Zealand batters.
“Our guys fought hard today,” said USA Head Coach Tim Lyon. “We were right there in the game the whole time. Phillip pitched a great game, we just have to do a better job of getting the bats going earlier in the game.”
USA 8, Czech Republic 4
The USA Junior Men and Czech Republic exchanged leads seven times on Saturday, but Team USA ended up on top with an 8-4 win. USA finally managed to grab the lead for good after a strong fourth inning when a passed ball scored Tristan Sensenig (Denver, Pa.) and then Bouley doubled to score Milheim and Steven Nessler (North Mankato, Minn.) making it USA 7, Czech Republic 4.
Tyler Stoffel (New Mankato, Minn.) also racked up two RBIs when he homered in the third inning and in the circle, Zimmerman struck out 10 Czech Republic batters and allowed just three earned runs.
Team USA will return to action at the ISF X Junior Men’s World Championships on Sunday, July 13 when they face Canada at 7:30 p.m. (PST). Visit www.USAsoftball.com to follow live stats and see photos from all of USA’s games at the ISF World Championship.