Coy James tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run, and Alex Harrington hit a walk off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth to give USA an extra-inning win to over Panama, 6-5, in Thursday’s first Super Round game of the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2022 in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Both teams scored twice in the first inning, with Panama taking the lead in the top half, and USA tying the game in the home half. The US squad took the lead in the second and added one more in the fifth.
However, Panama tied the game in the sixth, after getting their only two hits of the game, and took the lead in the seventh thanks to a US fielding error.
In the bottom of the seventh, James rocketed a 1-2 pitch into the left field stands for a game-tying home run. One inning later, with the tie-break rule runners on base, Panama was unable to score, and USA ended the game with a sacrifice fly by Alex Harrington.
The US pitching staff had some issues to find the strike zone, issuing 11 walks in the game. Alexander Mercurius opened the game for USA and allowed the first two runs of the game with four consecutive walks and a fielder’s choice.
He was replaced by Zane Burns, who pitched 4.2 strong innings, giving up no hits with two strikeouts against four walks allowed. However, the winner was Ryan Harwood who pitched the last 1.2 innings.
USA improved their record to 2-1, while Panama dropped its record to 0-3 in the Super Round standings.
