Japan defeated the USA Jr. Men Friday afternoon in Prince Edward Island, Canada, the final day of pool play, eliminating them from playoff contention.
The USA Jr. Men finished the tournament with a respectable 4-4 record, good for a 5th place finish, a dramatic improvement on their 9th place finish just four years ago. The USA team defeated Mexico (3-5) Argentina (2-6), Czech Republic (1-7 and Denmark (0-7), while losing to the four teams entering the playoff round. The USA lost to New Zealand by a 2-1 score, while playing Canada tough, taking a 2-0 lead into the 6th inning before Canada rallied before the home town fans, to win 6-2.
Australia (7-0), Japan (6-2), Canada (5-2) and New Zealand (5-2) will advance to the playoff round, and compete for gold, silver and bronze. The Canada-New Zealand game tonight will determine seeding for the playoffs, to be held over the weekend. The playoff schedule is as follows, with game times, ADT (one hour ahead of EST and four hours ahead of us on the west coast, PST)
Saturday, 2nd July 2005
Game Time Team Team
37 6:00pm – Third Place vs – Fourth Place
38 8:00pm – First Place vs – Second Place
Sunday, 3rd July 2005
Game Time Team Team
39 12:00am – Winner 37 vs – Loser 38
40 3:00pm – Winner 38 vs – Winner 39