Canada evened its record at the Baseball World Cup with a 10-0 drubbing of Germany on Saturday in Taipei.
Matt Rogelstad was a home run short of the cycle and Jeremy Ware hit a two-run shot to power Canada to the victory, which raised its mark to 2-2 in round-robin play.
Ware, of Guelph, Ont., went deep in the first inning and had three of Canada's 13 hits.
"Anytime you can contribute is good," Ware said. "You can't really care about yourself, you just have to find a way to help the team win."
Starter Jamie Richmond of Mississauga, Ont., allowed only four hits over seven shutout innings.
"The guys played great behind me," Richmond said. "I got a lot of ground balls for outs. The team needed the win, now we can come back (Sunday) and get another win."
The Canadians, coming off Friday's 6-3 loss to nine-time defending champion Cuba, will face the Netherlands on Sunday.
"It's been a real test of the team's skills with the ups and downs of international baseball," manager Terry Puhl said. "We're playing one game at a time and we're throwing every bullet that we have in every game from here on out."
Young powers U.S.In other Group B contests Saturday, the Netherlands prevailed over Venezuela 7-4, Cuba beat South Korea 7-2, and Australia demolished Thailand 26-1.
Dodgers' minor leaguer Delwyn Young hit a three-run homer in the first inning to help the U.S. improve its record to 3-1 in Group A with a 5-1 victory over Japan.
In other Group A action, Mexico overpowered South Africa 13-3, Panama blanked Italy 6-0, while Taiwan beat Spain 8-4.
Baseball Canada is using the 16-team competition to evaluate players in advance of the final Olympic qualifier in Taiwan next March, when three Beijing berths are up for grabs.
The Baseball World Cup features 16 teams divided into two pools. Each country plays seven round-robin games before the top four in each group advance to the quarter-finals.
Canada has never placed in the top three in the event, which was first played in 1938.
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Contact Us About Us HomeTuesday, January 6th, 2009