The wait is over. The eyes of the softball world will be on Prince Albert, Canada, for the next nine days as the XII Junior Men’s Softball World Championship got underway today. In the first game of the tournament Mexico defeated Denmark, 12-1, to kick off the event.
Mexico had a good offensive debut today, in the first game of the competition. They scored in every inning of the game against Denmark to clinch the first win of the tournament.
Mexico jumped ahead 7-0 in the first inning taking advantage of 3 errors and 7 hits, including a two-run home run to center field off the bat of Alexander Peña. Danish starter Oliver Summer was touched by their opponents and didn’t receive support of his defense, allowing the Mexican National Team to get a decisive lead early in the game to get the loss.
The Mexican team added one more in the second inning, with an RBI single by Omar Muñoz.
Denmark took its first hit of the game in the top of the third inning, and managed to score its only run of the contest. Asger Palm-Henriksen led off the inning with a single to left field, and two batters later he scored taking advantage of two defensive errors, after a line-drive single to right field by Lucas Mukherjee.
Mexico kept scoring in its third opportunity, wih a 2-RBI single to center field by Peña, who led his offensive with a 4 RBIs performance.
Finally, in the bottom of the fourth frame Mexico ended the game. Jesús Sonora doubled to left field, and then José Valenzuela hit a walkoff home run to the center field to clinch the victory.
Jose Felix had a good outing to earn the win with 2 hits and 1 run in 4 innings of work, with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks.
You can see stats and photo gallery here.
Tomorrow Mexico will play against India, at 12:30 a.m. local time, while Denmark will face Japan at 17:00 p.m.
