Spain blanks France in WBC qualifier
JUPITER — Nick Schumacher had batters bewildered as Spain defeated France 8-0 in a World Baseball Classic Qualifier tournament game Thursday at Roger Dean Stadium.
The right-hander allowed just four hits and threw 82 pitches over 6.1 shutout innings for the victory.
"I felt pretty good and got all of my stuff working from the get-go," Schumacher said. "It's easy to pitch when you get great offense."
The Spaniards abused French starter Patrice Briones, forcing him to throw 74 pitches and surrender five runs in just two innings.
"We just had a plan to go with our starters and, hopefully, they will keep us in the game as Schumacher did tonight," Spain manager Mauro Mazzotti said. "He did a great job and the lineup helped him out a lot tonight."
Paco Figueroa went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in for Spain. Engel Beltre was 3-for-5 with an RBI triple and Barbaro Canizares went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a home run.
Yunesky Sanchez smacked an RBI single through the right-field gap to give Spain a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Rafael Alvarez added Spain's second run of the inning on a fielder's choice.
"I think Spain played very well," France manager Jim Stoeckel said. "The first couple innings were tough for us. Our starting pitcher just didn't have great stuff tonight and made some mistakes. When you make mistakes against a club like that, they are going to hurt you.
"Spain is just a very talented group and that was the difference in the game."
With two outs in the second inning, Figueroa tagged an RBI single and Canizares singled in Spain's second run of the frame. Spain added its final run of the inning on a throwing error that gave it a 5-0 edge.
Spain's Beltre legged out an RBI triple in the third inning and Figueroa added another RBI single to increase Spain's lead to 7-0. Canizares hit a 3-1 pitch over the left field wall for a solo home run in the eighth inning.
Remigio Leal and Jose Cruz pitched in relief for Spain.
Spain (1-0) faces Israel (1-0) at 1 p.m. Friday while France (0-1) will battle South Africa (0-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.
"We just have to come out and get the team playing and playing hard," Figueroa said. "We had to have confidence and we did a good job going deep into the count tonight. We have a great squad a great coaching staff and we want to go out and win."
SPAIN 8, FRANCE 0
France 000 000 000 — 0 5 2
Spain 232 000 01x — 8 16 0
Patrice Briones, Matthieu Brelle, Thomas Meley, Anthony Piquet, Thomas Langloys and Boris Marche; Nick Schumacher, Remigio Leal, Jose Cruz and Adrian Nieto. WP Schumacher, LP Briones. HR: Barbaro Canizares (S) 3B: Engel Beltre (S) Records: S (1-0), F (0-1).
