Stern Lift Canadians to Opening Round Win

ATHENS - Mike Johnson (Edmonton, Alta.) pitched seven scoreless innings and Jeff Guiel (North Vancouver, B.C.) had two hits and scored a run as Baseball Canada's national team opened its Olympic competition with a 7-0 victory over Chinese Taipei tonight.

"It's always nice to get the first win under your belt," said Ernie Whitt, Team Canada's manager. "I like our pitching and defence and it was just a matter of time before our hitting came around."

Canada opened the scoring in the second inning courtesy of a two-run single to center field by Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.), scoring Todd Betts (East York, Ont.) and Adam Stern (London, Ont.), who went 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk in the win.

Peter Orr (Richmond Hill, Ont.) hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to score Ryan Radmanovich (Calgary, Alta.) and make the score 3-0.

Canada tallied a pair of runs in both the seventh and eighth innings thanks to a two-run double by Pierre-Luc Laforest (Hull, Que.) in the seventh followed by an RBI-triple by Stern and an RBI-single by Orr in the eighth.

"Personally, to be able to contribute feels pretty good but the bottom line on this team is to get a win," said Guiel, who singled, doubled and scored a run.

Canada, who beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the final game of a four-game pre-Olympic tournament in Nettuno, Italy, Aug. 7-10 en route to a first-place finish, will face Italy tomorrow in the teams' second of seven games in round-robin play.

Right-hander Jason Dickson (London, Ont.) is scheduled to start for Canada.