Victoria baseball players Michael Saunders and Jesse Hodges, no strangers to the Canadian national team, are getting reacquainted with the international game this week in Sao Paulo and Ibiuna, Brazil, at the qualifying tournament for the 2019 Pan Am Games.
It was a good start for sa国际传媒 as designated-hitter Saunders, among seven players with MLB experience on the Canadian roster, had a single in a 5-1 victory Tuesday over Panama. The top-four of the seven teams (Venezuela dropped out) in the qualifier will advance to the Games from July 26 to Aug. 11 in Lima, Peru.
sa国际传媒 is the two-time defending Pan Am Games gold medallist from Toronto in 2015 and Guadalajara in 2011, a notable achievement in a baseball region that includes the U.S., Cuba and Dominican Republic.
The 32-year-old Saunders played nine seasons in the majors with the Mariners, Blue Jays and Phillies with a .232 batting average, 81 home runs, 263 RBIs, .305 on-base percentage, .397 slugging percentage and an all-star game appearance in 2016 as a sort of Blue Jays鈥� Canadian folk hero as the Final Vote winner. Saunders signed a minor-league contract this month with the Colorado Rockies. The Lambrick Park Secondary graduate is hoping a good showing with sa国际传媒 will lead into a strong training camp with the Rockies, a noteworthy start with the Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes, and maybe a path back to the majors.
Saunders鈥� previous international experience was as 2007 qualifying tournament MVP, who went on to have eight hits, two homers, four RBIs and five runs scored in seven games to lead sa国际传媒 to sixth place at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Baseball makes its return to the Olympics in 2020 at Tokyo and Saunders will, no doubt, be much in the Canadian team conversation on a late-career swan-song-level narrative. He was also named to the all-WBC team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. As a kid, his first taste of international play was with the Canadian-champion Gordon Head team in the 1999 Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The Chicago Cubs-prospect Hodges, meanwhile, is a prototype modern infielder with size and plate power. The six-foot-one graduate of Lambrick Park, who has a batting average of .241 in 527 career minor-pro games, played last season in Double-A with the Tennessee Smokies.
The 24-year-old Hodges was on the Canadian gold-medallist team at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and was all-tournament in leading sa国际传媒 to the silver medal at the 2012 world junior championship in South Korea with a performance that first caught the eyes of Cubs鈥� scouts.
Hodges鈥� dad, Steve, was a former pro in the Atlanta Braves system, grand-uncle Berlyn Hodges was also a pro and grandfather Lowell Hodges was well known in Island baseball circles.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a baseball family,鈥� Jesse Hodges said, of his upbringing on the Island.
Meanwhile, 39-year-old former Blue Jays hurler Scott Richmond got the start for sa国际传媒 on Tuesday and handcuffed Panama through five innings.
鈥淚t was a hot day and he gave us five strong innings,鈥� said Canadian manager Ernie Whitt.
鈥淲e played good fundamental baseball but left a lot of guys on base early in the game [including Saunders].鈥�
That was until Los Angeles Dodgers鈥� prospect Wes Darvill from Langley tied the game 1-1 in the sixth inning with a solo homer.
鈥淭hat home run changed the momentum,鈥� said Whitt.
鈥淚t took the wind out of Panama鈥檚 sails and put the wind in ours.鈥�
sa国际传媒 plays Colombia on Thursday.
