Saturday, August 18, 2007

Canada Wins It's LLWS Opener


The Little League World Series started out with a bang yesterday with one of the most dramatic games in recent memory. By today, many people were still buzzing about the play that Michael Rando made, but for a lot of the LLWS teams, they had games to play. One of those teams were Canada, who were playing their 1st game of the tournament against Saudi Arabia.

The Canucks sent 6 foot 2, 200 pound Shaylen Buis to the mound, and started off smoking. His 1st 6 outs were all off strikeouts and took a 5-0 lead into the 5th. But the Saudis equaled Canada's 5 to tie it up and chase Buis out of the game. But Canada's bats were not fazed by the shaky inning.

Parker Stefaniuk and Jackson Temple both homered in the inning, which highlighted the 8 runs the Canucks scored. Canada then shut down Saudi Arabia for their 1st win of the tournament. Temple said his players weren't discouraged despite blowing a five-run lead.

''These guys have been in this position before,'' he said. ''They knew what had to be done. There was no panic. We weren't heading for the lifeboats.''

Canada's next game is Monday afternoon against Japan (1-0), the favourites in Pool D. The Japanese pounded the Caribbean 10-3 in their tournament opener Friday, and if they are not careful against them, they may be heading for the lifeboats after all.

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