OTTAWA- Baseball Canada announced today the names of 30-players who will compete in the Junior National Team’s annual Spring Training Camp April 12-22 in Orlando, Florida.
The camp includes daily practices and an exhibition schedule against the extended spring training clubs of the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals and Toronto Blue Jays.
All games and practices will take place at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports with the exception of the game on April 16th where the juniors will travel to Dunedin to take on the Toronto Blue Jays prospects at the Bobby Mattick Complex.
The roster features 25 players who took part in the Fall Instructional League Camp last October, while five players – Mitchell Bigras (Sarnia, ON), Kurtis Kostuk (Abbotsford, BC), Daniel Marquez (Cambridge, ON), Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, MB) and Zach Pop (Brampton, ON) – have all been added to the roster.
The roster includes five players – Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON), Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON), Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON), Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON) and Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, ON) – who helped Canada to a silver medal at the 2012 IBAF 18U World Championship in Seoul, South Korea.
The coaching is staff is led by Head Coach and Baseball Canada’s Director of National Teams Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON), while Pitching Coach Chris Reitsma (Calgary, AB) and Coaches Hyung Cho (Scarborough, ON) and Corey Eckstein (Abbotsford, BC) return to the staff. Former National Team player Adam Stern along with Victoria, BC native Gautam Srivastava will be part of the staff as guest coaches.
The Spring Training Camp is an important step in the process as the JNT prepares for the IBAF 18U World Championship August 30th-September 8th in Taichung, Taiwan.
“This camp will allow our coaching staff the opportunity to evaluate all players in a highly competitive environment,” said Hamilton “The strides taken at this camp will better prepare our team for success going forward and leading to the World Championship in September.”
For the players, the training camp will not only offer them the chance to represent their country while improving their skills but will also provide plenty of exposure, as several college and professional scouts will use the training camp as an opportunity for talent evaluation.
