Canada won the gold medal in men’s softball Saturday with a huge assist from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Five of the 10 starting players in the lineup for Canada at the Pan Am Games hail from Newfoundland, and one of them, Brad Ezekiel, crushed a sixth-inning two-run home run to spot his team a 2-0 lead in what turned out to be a 2-1 victory over Venezuela.
The victory gave Canada its eighth consecutive Pan Am Games title and two major championships in two weeks. Team Canada captured the world championship in Saskatoon earlier in the month; a tournament in which Ezekiel hit four dingers.
By his own high standards he said he struggled at the plate in the Pan Am Games, but came through in the crunch.
“The whole game they were pitching me outside and he managed to leave one over the middle of the plate and I got a good piece of it,” Ezekiel said. “It wasn’t my week at the plate and I am thankful to the coaches for sticking with me. I managed to get one out on the last at-bat of the week.”
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