SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Canadians were so hyped for their World Baseball Classic opener that, led by Michael Soroka, they charged out from the dugout for the first pitch before being cued and had to be pulled back from the field. A game official spoke to Josh Naylor and Tyler O’Neill by the dugout while the managers were brought out to exchange lineups at home plate and only once through with the formalities could the festivities begin.

When they finally did, the Naylor brothers set the tone with their defensive play as Soroka settled in and Owen Caissie delivered a key early blow with a two-run homer before the offence added late in an 8-2 victory over Colombia on Saturday.

Canada rolled after shaking off a last-minute pitching change, their Pool A rivals going with Texas Rangers farmhand Austin Bergner over former big-leaguer Julio Teheran, whom the club said had been diagnosed with a shoulder impingement that flared up during warmups.

No matter, the result gave the Canadians firm control of their fate heading into their Sunday clash with Panama, when Jameson Taillon gets the ball, while the Colombians, at 0-2, are suddenly on the precipice.

Fates can, of course, change quickly amid the unpredictability of small-sample sizes in a mid-spring timeframe, which is why the Canadians will be most pleased by the repeatable elements — strong work in the field, strike-throwing on the mound, tenacious at-bats — of their opening victory. 

The Colombians helped some of that along as they squandered a promising first, when Michael Arroyo at third with one out, charged home on Reynaldo Rodriguez’s grounder to first. Josh Naylor fielded it clean, relayed to his brother at home for an easy second out and Bo Naylor then threw out Rodriguez trying to steal second to end the frame.

Undeterred, Colombia tested the Cleveland Guardians catcher again the next inning and when Jesus Marriaga was cut down comfortably, ending consecutive innings with an out at second.

Canada got rolling in the second when Abraham Toro dunked a hustle double into left field and an out later, Caissie sent a hanging curveball from Bergner 403 feet to right field, directly to a pair of fans holding a Canadian flag.

Soroka, making his long-awaited return to the senior national team, gave one back in the third on Arroyo’s RBI single, but Canada got that back in bottom half on Toro’s bases-loaded walk and added another in the seventh when Josh Naylor’s RBI single cashed in Denzel Clarke, whose fly ball to right was dropped by Marriaga for a two-base error.

But the Canadians ran themselves out of more that inning on a delayed double steal that resulted in Edouard Julien getting thrown out at home and then exacerbated things in the eighth, when Clarke’s wild relay on Harold Ramirez’s double prevented a potential out at the plate when Arroyo stumbled near the dirt.

The Colombians proceeded to put on the go-ahead run against Micah Ashman but manager Ernie Whitt turned to Royals prospect Eric Cerantola and he threw three straight sliders to Gio Urshela to escape the jam.

Canada doubled down in the bottom half, as Tyler Black walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Daniel Vellojin’s throwing error and scored easy on Toro’s triple to right-centre field. Bo Naylor then cashed him in with a single, Clarke added a sacrifice fly and O’Neill a bases-loaded walk that really padded the advantage.

That gave Cerantola way more breathing room than he had when he came on, recorded two more outs before Phillippe Aumont got the final out, capping a solid pitching performance that also included three shutout frames in the middle innings from Noah Skirrow.