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Canada faces tough road in defending Pan Am Games baseball gold medal

Canada faces tough road in defending Pan Am Games baseball gold medal

A revamped format, stiff competition, and the usual roster uncertainty means Ernie Whitt has his work cut out for him this July. But Whitt, the manager of Canada’s Pan Am Games baseball team, remembers the feeling of winning gold in 2011 and is intent on feeling it again on home soil in 2015.

“I get chills thinking about it,” Whitt said on Monday. “I remember the players running onto the field celebrating. For a lot of them, it was their World Series. It was an honour to be a part of it. I’ll never forget it.”

The schedule for the week-long tournament, which will be held in Ajax, Ont., was released on Monday. Canada opens with a game against the Dominican Republic on July 11, faces powerful Cuba on July 14, and closes the round robin against the United States on July 17. In all, the team will play six preliminary games then the top four teams advance to the semi-finals. In years past teams played just three preliminary games within two pools of four. With only seven teams entered this year the format was changed and the road to the medal-round made that much more grueling.

But before they play ball, Whitt and Team Canada have the difficult task of assembling a roster. Minor-league players who are not on major league 40-man rosters are eligible to play, but that can make things even trickier.

“It’s totally up to the player whether he wants to leave [his minor-league team], sometimes it’s a tough situation for them [because] they might have a chance at a call up to the big leagues,” Whitt said. “The players I’ve talked to, they’re all excited about it, many have already confirmed they’d like to be a part of it.

“Come mid-May we’ll start defining the team a little bit more. We have to wait in case of injuries, guys getting called up to the big leagues, whether the players want to make the commitment. We’ll have a depth chart, we’ll go to the players we think will help the country perform. Barring injuries the players love to play for their country.”

In 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Canada went on a Cinderella run and won the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the U.S. The U.S. team beat Cuba in the semi-final, a team that featured Jose Abreu, the now-White Sox slugger who was the American League rookie of the year in 2014. Canada’s gold medal ended Cuba’s 10-games run as gold medalists.

Playing in that kind of high-stakes atmosphere is something Whitt considers when building his team.

“You definitely try to get the best players available, [and] definitely want some that have had international experience before,” Whitt said. “These tournaments are totally different than playing in the regular season; it’s almost a playoff atmosphere. Every game is important. You’re trying to position yourself to make it into the final four so you can get into the medal round. It’s not like ‘Well we lost today we’ll go get them tomorrow.’ We’ve got to win the game that we play.”

Whitt also hopes the home-field advantage will be a boost to his team and put them over the edge.

“Playing in front of our fans I think is going to be very beneficial to us … I’m hoping it will be electric.

“We can compete with any country out there, and we have proven that in the past. We’ve got an awful lot of good ball players in this country. When they put the Canadian uniform on there’s no stopping them.”

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at denomme@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter.