Four home runs give Canada 10-0 four-inning win over Denmark

Canada used the long ball to defeat Denmark on Day 2 of the WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup. Mathieu Roy, Quinten Bruce, Bryan Abrey and Colin Walsh homered for the red and white squad.

A pair of triples in the first inning gave Canada an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, and one inning later Roy doubled the difference with a two-run shot over the right field fence, to make it 4-0.

Rain stopped the game for three hours, but Canada came back stronger and connected three homers in the bottom of the fourth to finish the game by run difference. Bruce went deep for a three-run home run, and three pitches later Abrey belted his own homer. The game was ended by Walsh, who smashed a no-doubter to left field with one man on base to close the match, 10-0.

The winning pitcher was Zach Pierce, who shutout Denmark in three innings of one-hit ball, while striking out three. 

Quotes: Canada coach John Stuart

With the two-hour delay we stayed focused, we had some fun, it wasn’t all serious. And we came back with a vengeance and got all those runs with only two-out to end it in four. I was pleased that we stayed focussed and had good at-bats.

The key was good at-bats and being patient. He is a left-handed pitcher with a good curve ball so we had to be patience, and wait for our pitch to hit. And when we were on defence, focus was on getting that leader – the first out in the inning.

It is frustrating with the weather – it is out of our control so stay patient, stay focussed, stay loose and when we are ready go let’s get ready to go strong.

It has been good so far. We have South Africa tomorrow so we want to keep the ball rolling and be ready for Australia and Canada as the end of the week comes along.

Denmark head coach Craig Wallace

The conditions did not affect us mentally too badly – we knew where we sat and the weather did not play a big part in the outcome today.

I thought we had good at-bats today. We saw some good pitching. I was happy with our approach in the box and we swung at the ball pretty hard. Defensively we were a lot better than yesterday which was good. We just came up against a team that hit the ball hard. They came away from the weather delay and came out swinging.

Defensively we need to further improve, we swing the bat alright and have some good pitching. If we can keep up some good defence then we will go alright.