Goldeyes savour Pan Am Games experience

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This article was published 06/08/2019 (2277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Goldeyes veteran Wes Darvill was a long way from home, but that didn’t stop fans from recognizing him during his most recent trip to the Pan Am Games.

From July 29 to Aug. 4, Darvill was one of the two Goldeyes players representing their home country’s national baseball teams in Lima, Peru. Darvill represented Canada, while Goldeyes teammate Willy Garcia represented the Dominican Republic.

“Just truly an honour to represent Canada, and then also to represent the Goldeyes. I had people coming up to me over there saying they’re from Winnipeg, that they’re so happy that I’m here and that they’re huge Goldeyes fans, so that was a lot of fun, too,” Darvill said on Tuesday before the Goldeyes played an American Association game against the Lincoln Saltdogs.

The Langley, B.C. native was 9 for 27 at the plate in six tournament games, with eight runs scored — including a grand slam on Aug. 1 as part of a 10-3 victory over Columbia.

Team Canada fell 6-1 in the gold-medal match against Puerto Rico. It was a tough loss for Canada, which entered the competition as back-to-back gold medallists in the Guadalajara 2011 and Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.

Despite the lost, Darvill is happy to be walking away with a silver medal and some great memories during his time with Team Canada.

“Any time you get to represent your country, it’s great. The greatest part was probably just being with the guys at any point. Taking the field with them was special, but even the smallest things from like riding the bus to the field, we’d all sing O Canada pulling up to the field, everyone was banging their hands on the side of the bus making noise, just all really fired up to take the field,” Darvill said.

It was Garcia’s first time representing his home country, the Dominican Republic, on an international stage.

“First time representing the Dominican Republic felt amazing. It was my first time going to the Pan Ams. Having fun with people from my country, people from other countries, different cultures in the villas,” Garcia said.

Team Dominican Republic lost to Team Cuba 10-9 in a consolation match, but in no way does that discredit the fantastic showing Garcia put up in his international debut.

One of Garcia’s favourite moments was hitting a grand slam in the ninth inning of their preliminary-round matchup against the host country, Peru.

“It felt amazing, especially with Peru being on our tails. With that grand slam, we got a little bit of a breather in that game,” Garcia said.

The Dominican Republic went on to win the match against Peru 10-3. While Garcia’s team didn’t medal in the Games, the last inning of the last game his team played is one he says he’ll remember forever.

For fans in the stands, it was truly something seemingly out of a movie. It was a 1-0 game for Cuba headed into the top of the ninth. By the end of inning, the score was very, very different.

“It was the last inning against Cuba with two outs. We manufactured nine runs, something where you had to be there to believe it… Just an unreal experience.”

devon.shewchuk@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @devonshewchuk