Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Wilson to Play for Team Canada at World University Baseball Championships
7/3/2008 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 3, 2008
WUBC Web Site (to view in English, click flag on lefthand side)
Tournament Schedule
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Recent Bucknell graduate Mathew Wilson (Toronto, Ontario/Northern S.S.), whose heroics helped propel the Bison to an upset victory over Florida State in the opening round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, has the opportunity to return to the mound as he will represent his country as a member of Team Canada at the World University Baseball Championships this month.
The tournament, which is in its fourth year of existence, will be held from July 17-27 in the Czech Republic. Canada is competing in its third World University Games Baseball Championships having participated in the 2002 tournament in Sicily, Italy and in 2004 in Tainan, Chinese Taipei.
Canada will be based in Brno, Czech Republic where the squad will play four of its seven round robin games. Team Canada will also play one game in Blansko and two games in Olomouc. In addition to Canada, seven other nations will field teams for this year's WUBC including the United States, Korea, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Chinese Taipei, Japan and India.
Wilson is one of 22 student-athletes on Canada's roster who played university baseball in either 2006-07 or 2007-08, participating in the CIS (OUA), NAIA and NCAA. The right-hander capped off his collegiate career at Bucknell by pitching a 7-0 complete game shutout against national No. 4-seed Florida State at the 2008 NCAA Tallahassee Regional and was a unanimous selection to the Tallahassee All-Regional Team.
Wilson's shutout against the Seminoles marked the fifth of his career, which set a new school record. A team co-captain, Wilson was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection this year. He finished his career with a 13-8 record and 156 strikeouts. His 73 strikeouts this spring were a career high and he narrowly missed breaking the Bison single-season record for strikeouts per nine innings.
The Bison finished 2008 with the second-highest wins total in school history at 30-24-2 and won their fourth Patriot League championship, earning a Patriot League record fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
