Team Canada needed somebody to stop the bleeding and Brandon Hunter jumped at his chance to pitch in the World Baseball Challenge.
After all, it's not every day you get a chance to play for your country on home turf.
Given an opportunity to chill the hot bats of Toshiba-Japan was an honour Hunter gladly accepted on a cool misty Wednesday night at Citizen Field, even though Canada was already trailing by five runs on the way to a 14-3 loss.
Statistically, it wasn't a night to remember for Hunter, who pitched three innings, giving up six hits, nine walks and nine earned runs. But his first diamond appearance wearing the maple leaf will forever be etched in his memory .
"It was interesting, I hadn't pitched competitive like that in easily six or seven years and I just came out and tried to throw strikes," said the 27-year-old son of Cheryl and Phil Hunter. "I threw strikes for the first two (batters) and lost it after that. They hit the ball well and have good eyes at the plate and they don't make too many errors.
"My stuff was decent but I threw too many fastballs. It felt good. It was tough conditions out here -- cold and damp and (after heavy thundershowers Wednesday) the mound was in bad condition."
Hunter did manage to keep Japan off the scoreboard in the fourth inning of a game that ended in the seventh when the 10-run mercy rule was applied.
"We were super-pleased with what Brandon did in that game," said Team Canada manager Scott MacKenzie. "He was a late pickup for us but we knew when we got him we were getting an all-star player who can do all kinds of things, right from playing outfield to hitting to pitching. When we asked him to pitch before we came to the tournament he was a bit surprised, but the athlete that he is, we knew he could get it done.
"Having composure is the biggest thing in an event like this and you can't be too nervous out there, and Brandon is that type of player."
The six-foot-four, 215-pound Hunter played college ball as an outfielder at Campellsville University in Kentucky, then went to Australia to play semipro two years ago with the Redcliff Padres. He also had a stint in senior ball in Nova Scotia playing for the Pelham Canadians. Hunter has played most of his career in the field or at first base but he's still one of the top pitchers in the Prince George Senior Baseball League as a member of the Queensway Auto World Red Sox.
He played in the 2009 WBC playing for the Prince George Axemen, but this time around it's much different for him. He's one of four players from Prince George on the national team. the others being Jeremy Kral, Brooklyn Foster and Devon Franklin.
"It doesn't get any better than this, just to wear a Canada uniform in general and in your hometown is pretty special," Hunter said. "It's a great experience playing with these guys."
Canada's game Thursday night against Chinese Taipei was rained out. Hunter got into Tuesday's 9-4 loss to Cuba as the designated hitter in the eighth inning and drove a pitch from Cuban reliever Norberto Gonzalez out to right field for a single.
"It was a little bleeder but it did the job," said Hunter. "I wanted to see that guy [Gonzalez] again. Everything was coming into my wheelhouse."
n MacKenzie was offering no excuses for his team's poor showing against Toshiba-Japan and they wasn't dwelling on the loss.
"You can't make mistakes with teams like that in an event like this and we just didn't get a good start," MacKenzie said. "We're super-confident with the team we've got here and there's no reason why we can't continue being strong in the tournament. We were right with Cuba and couple pitches took us out of it, but that's baseball."
Kral and Foster are battling for playing time at catcher and both have played well. Foster was the defensive game star in Canada's 13-7 win over the Bahamas on Sunday and Kral went 3-for-4 at the plate while catching all nine inning is a 6-2 win over the Beijing Tigers on Monday. Foster was to be the starting catcher Thursday.
"It's quite a battle going on behind there and they're certainly making it tough on me making the decision on who's going to play there, but it's a good problem to have," said MacKenzie.
Canada's roster includes three players from Nova Scotia, four from Ontario, three from Alberta and the rest from B.C.
