With one swing of the bat, former Cal Poly baseball star Jimmy Van Ostrand drove in the only two runs Canada needed to beat the United States 2-1 Tuesday and win the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Van Ostrand stepped up to the plate with two men on base in the top of the sixth inning and doubled down the right field line to bring in Chris Robinson and Tim Smith. Both Robinson and Smith had two-out singles to start the rally.
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“We’ve finally accomplished what we set out to do,” said Canada manager Ernie Whitt, a 15-year major league player. “I am so proud of these guys. They’ve worked so hard for this and didn’t give up.”
The gold was Canada’s first at the Pan American Games, a competition that has been dominated by Cuba for 40 years. The Cubans had won 10 straight titles until the United States defeated them 12-10 in Monday’s semifinals. They instead had to settle for bronze.
Despite trailing 4-2 at the half, Cuesta College locked down on defense and scored a crucial fourth-quarter goal to grab a 5-4 women’s water polo victory at Ventura College on Wednesday.
Cougars goalie Loren Kasenberg recorded a season-high 14 saves, including eight in her second-half shutout.
Alexandria Bernard and Alex O’Connor led the Cougars (17-11, 4-0 Western State Conference) in scoring with two goals each, and Erin Hasenkamp added one.
“The girls played hard. It was a good game all-around,” Cuesta head coach Pete Schuler said. “We played good defense in the second half and got that goal we needed to win.”
The victory sealed Cuesta’s undefeated conference record and earned it the No. 1 spot in the WSC championships Nov. 4.
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