U.S. beats Canada 8-3 in Super Round opener at U18 baseball World Cup

THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Triston Casas homered and drove in five runs to lead the United States to an 8-3 win over Canada in the Super Round of the under-18 baseball World Cup.

Canadian starter Eric Cerantola of Oakville, Ont., got off to a tough start as he walked the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the first inning, leading to two runs for the Americans.

Denzel Clarke of Pickering, Ont., drove in a run on fielder’s choice that put Canada on the scoreboard in the top of the second, but Winnipeg’s Victor Cerny and Clarke were gunned down at home plate to keep it 2-1.

“We definitely missed out on some opportunities to get back into the game,” said Canadian manager Greg Hamilton.

“That’s a pretty good team over there and to beat them you need to take advantage (of chances) when you get them.”

Cerantola settled in after the first, except for a solo homer off the bat of Casas in the third, and worked five innings with seven strikeouts. Reliever Cade Smith of Abbotsford, B.C., took over from there.

Canada chased U.S. starter Kumar Rocker from the game in the fourth but couldn’t get to reliever Landon Marceaux, who shut Canada down for 3 1/3 innings.

Down 5-1 in the eighth, Noah Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., and Archer Brookman, from Pointe-Claire, Que., connected on back-to-back doubles to bring in one run before Victoria’s Jason Willow cashed in another on an RBI groundout.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed in the bottom of the inning, however, when Casas doubled to centre to bring in three runs to put the Americans in front by five.

Canada takes on Japan Friday and Cuba Saturday to round out the Super Round schedule. 

The first- and second-place teams following the Super Round will face each other in Sunday’s gold-medal final. The third- and fourth-place teams will compete for bronze.

“Japan is certainly a tough opponent so it is important again to move on and be ready to play tomorrow,” said Hamilton.

The Canadian Press