The United States of America made a strong statement in the 10-0 victory over Mexico at the Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan in Premier 12 action.
Matt McBride (Colorado Rockies) and Adam Frazier (Pittsburgh Pirates) reached base in the second inning to set up the kill for Brett Phillips (Milwaukee Brewers), who was looking to get the United States on the board. Phillips knocked an infield single to score one run. Meanwhile, a wild throw to first baseman Tim Torres on the hit from Phillips allowed the second run to score.
The United States doubled their lead with a double from McBride down the left field line. The hit gave USA a 4-0 lead over Mexico in the third inning.
Brett Eibner (Kansas City Royals) gave the States the biggest hit of the night, which was a two-run blooper to left. The broke the game open and grew the lead to 7-0 in the sixth. Eibner is 4-for-6 with five RBI over his last two games.
Toeing the slab for the USA was Zack Segovia (Uvi-Lions-CPBL). The starter tossed six scoreless innings of baseball, allowing just four hits and a walk to get the win on Wednesday.
"I just kept pounding the zone, we had a good game plan going in to it," said Segovia following the win. "We showed (tonight) that we may be down, but we aren't out. We needed to come out and make a statement and I think we did."
Brooks Pounders (Kansas City Royals) and Jake Barrett (Arizona Diamondbacks) gave up just four hits over the final two innings after Segovia was pulled with 71 pitches.
"Zack did a great job of setting the tone for us by putting up zeros and throwing an outstanding game," manager Willie Randolph said. "Just a great team effort all the way around."
The storyline for Mexico was Humberto Sosa, who had two of the four Mexican hits against Segovia, Pounders and Barrett.
With an already huge lead, the United States kept their foot on the pedal with two runs in the seventh. An RBI double from Frazier and Dan Rohlfing's (New York Mets) RBI groundout made it 9-0 game in favor of Team USA.
A final run was drove in by none other than McBride. He hit an RBI single to give the U.S. a 10-0 lead in the eighth, which called for the 10-run Premier 12 mercy rule to end the game. The outfielder finished 5-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored in the 10-0 blowout for the U.S.
McBride has hit .300 with 113 home runs 572 RBI over 10 Minor League Baseball seasons with a variety of teams. The 30-year-old has been called up to play in 72 Major League Baseball games during his professional career in the United States, but hit just .200 with four home runs and 17 RBI.
"I was pleasantly surprised with the way the guys came out to play today," Randolph said. "That speaks a lot about the team and the commitment these guys have made from day one to go out there and get this thing done."
The United States improved to 2-1 in Group B with two games to play in their group. The USA will battle a very tough Japan team at 5:00 AM ET on Saturday from Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Meanwhile, Mexico dropped to 1-2 in the Premier league and will face South Korea in their next game.