Is Canada ready for World Baseball Classic?

Either South Africa is better than they thought, or Canada is in trouble. Canada did pull out an 11-8 win over South Africa last night at Scottsdale (Arizona) Stadium.

Canada was up 3-0 and 7-5 but lost both leads. In fact, Team Canada needed 4 runs in the ninth inning to win.

Canada's explosive inning came in the 7th. Jason Bay started things off with a double and scored on an RBI double by Justin Morneau, who came home on Corey Koskie's two-run home run to right field. Pierre-luc Laforest added a double and his pinch-runner Matt Rogelstad scored later on a wild pitch.

Chris Reitsma (Atlanta) got the win, even though he gave up a 3-run double to give South Africa a 8-7 lead in the 8th.

Adam Stern doubled in the tying run in the 9th. Ryan Radmanovich led off the ninth with a triple. Stern scored the lead run on a throwing error.

Both teams played less-than-stellar defense. The wind at Scottsdale Stadium was an issue; playing at Chase Field, the wind won't be as much of an issue.

The team played plenty of small ball, despite their heralded power punch in the middle of its lineup. Bay (Pittsburgh), Morneau (Minnesota), Matt Stairs (Kansas City), and Koskie (Milwaukee) are established MLB veteran hitters. One hitter they would love to have is the recently retired Larry Walker, most recently of St. Louis. Walker serves as the team's hitting coach.

The ESPN2 coverage in the States was pretty good. Steve Stone was the color commentator and he did an excellent job. He pointed out that S. Africa is not used to playing on diamonds this smooth, and had not played at this stadium before last night. ESPN2 showed the game tape-delayed and had to edit out parts of the game not relevant to the scoring. Then again, the game went much longer than anyone thought.

Canada plays the U.S. later today. The United States shutout Mexico 2-0 yesterday. The Americans will pitch left-hander Dontrelle Willis against a virtually all-left-handed hitting Canadian team. Team Canada will respond with left-hander Adam Loewen, a pitcher on the rise in the Baltimore organization. The game will be at Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The top two teams in this pool advance to Anaheim, California this weekend.