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Shawn Hill again answers call for Team Canada, and shuts down Cuba
AJAX, Ont. – When Canada calls, Shawn Hill almost always answers.
The veteran pitcher from Mississauga relishes the opportunity to wear the red and white when he’s asked. So at 34 years old, removed from his prime baseball playing days and after four major surgeries, he couldn’t be happier to be representing Canada again at the 2015 Pan Am Games.
“It’s like a big family,” Hill said after he earned the victory in a 3-1 preliminary-round win over Cuba on Tuesday. “Playing for Canada there’s the pride factor, but for me it comes down to playing for Greg [Hamilton], playing for Ernie [Whitt], all the guys. It’s an entirely different environment than playing affiliated baseball. If I gave up five today and we won 20-5, I don’t care – that doesn’t exist in affiliated baseball.”
Hill has been a member of Team Canada for pretty much all the recent major events – the 2004 Olympic team in Athens, the 2011 World Cup and Pan Am Games, the 2013 World Baseball Classic (as well as the team that had to go through a 2012 qualifying tournament in Germany), and now the 2015 Pan Am Games. And when takes the hill, he usually shines. Hill was instrumental in the 2011 Pan Am tournament, going 2-0 including winning the semi-final game against Mexico.
That was the case again on Tuesday against Cuba. Hill pitched six shutout innings in a 3-1 win as Canada improved to a perfect 4-0 at the tournament. The defending gold-medallists face Puerto Rico on Thursday after a day off Wednesday.
“Shawn’s been with me for a long time and I expect that type of stuff out of him. He kept a good Cuban team off balance,” manager Whitt said.
Canada got on the board first in sixth inning. Skyler Stromsmoe led off with an infield single and Sean Jamieson walked. Two batters later Tyler O’Neill crushed a three-run home run to straightaway centrefield for a 3-0 lead.
That was all the offence Hill and the bullpen needed. Cuba’s Alfredo Despaigne led off the seventh inning with a solo homer off Andrew Albers but he worked a clean eighth and Jeff Francis had a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn the save.
Hill’s only real trouble spot came in the bottom half of the sixth, putting runners on second and first with one out but he got out of it with a line out and pop out. He gave up a first-inning single but erased it with a 6-4-3 double play, and faced the minimum through four innings. A two-out single in the fifth ended his run of 11 consecutive batters retired and finished the night giving up just three hits and one walk.
“I started off all right and felt better as the game went on,” Hill said. “It’s obviously not a team I see often so I’m trying to figure out what they do, what the zone is.”
Hill has had a long, turbulent career in baseball. He was drafted twice, by the San Diego Padres in the 33rd round in 1999, and by the Montreal Expos in the 6th round in 2000. He had Tommy John surgery in 2004. He’s also part of an interesting bit of trivia – he was the winning pitcher in the final game between two Canadian major-league teams. On June 4, 2004 he earned the victory as the Expos beat the Blue Jays, though the game was played in Puerto Rico.
In all, Hill has played for 17 different minor-league or independent-league teams since 2000, and four major-league teams, including both the Expos and Blue Jays. Now he’s pitching for the York Revolution in the independent Atlantic League. He sports an unimpressive 1-7 record with a 4.39 earned-run average and a 1.49 WHIP.
None of that mattered on Tuesday night as he helped Canada take another step toward repeating as gold-medal winners, and he did it at home in front of his family.
“That was a nice perk,” he said. “I would have tried to go [to the Games] if it was anywhere. The fact that it was here was icing on the cake.”
After Thursday’s game against Puerto Rico, Canada faces the United States on Friday in a game that could determine first place in preliminary-round play. Under the new tournament format the top four teams advance directly to semi-final games.
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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.
