Team USA 18U completed a dominating performance at the COPABE Junior AAA/18U Pan American Championships with a 12-2 win over Team Canada in eight innings Sunday in Cartagena, Colombia.
There was little drama in the championship game as Team USA scored seven runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 7-1 lead. A pair of runs in the second, a single run in the fifth and two runs in the eighth ended the game early via the 10-run mercy rule.
The big blow in the first inning came from Addison Russell, who hit a grand slam to left field on a 3-2 pitch to put the US up 6-0. The home run was the only one of the tournament for Team USA, which sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on five hits with one error.
Two more runs came in the second when Carson Kelly doubled down the left field line to bring home Russell and Joey Gallo, both of whom had walked.
Russell scored the lone run in the fifth when he singled and scored on David Dahl's sacrifice fly. The game ended in the eighth on back-to-back RBI singles by Gallo and Cecchini that put the winning margin to 10 runs.
Team USA finished the tournament 9-0, going 6-0 in group play and 3-0 in tournament play. After a 9-0 win to beat Panama in the first round of tournament play, Team USA edged Venezuela 5-1 to advance to the championship game against Canada.
Against Panama, Walker Weickel pitched eight innings and gave up no runs on three hits with 10 strikeouts and no walks to gain the victory for the US. Chase Dejong threw the final frame and gave up one hit with two strikeouts.
Albert Almora was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored to lead the offense. He also had a double, as did David Dahl, Gavin Cecchini and Russell. Jeremy Martinez and Cecchini also had two RBIs apiece while Dahl had one.
In the Venezuela win, the US needed three runs in the bottom of the eighth to break the game open. Cole Irvin picked up the win, throwing seven innings and giving up one run on five hits with three strikeouts. Carson Fulmer threw the final two innings for the save, striking out two.
Almora and Gallo each had a double for the only extra-base hits of the game. Gallo was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and was the only player with multiple hits.
Almora led the team with 16 hits, five doubles and 11 RBIs during the tournament while Gavin Cecchini had the best batting average among the starters at .468 (15-32).
