OTTAWA – Baseball Canada announced today the names of 24 players that will participate in the New England Summer tour scheduled for July 2nd-11th.
The team will assemble in Toronto on June 29th and hold workouts at Rogers Centre on June 30th and July 1st before flying to Boston on July 2nd.
On Canada Day, the juniors will be guests of the Toronto Blue Jays taking part in pregame festivities before watching the Jays take-on the Detroit Tigers.
The New England Summer Tour will see the juniors play Holyoke, Danbury and New Bedford from the New England Collegiate Baseball League, Torrington in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, Utica from the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League along with games against Strike Zone Elite, the Boston Selects and the Cape Cod Selects.
The juniors will also be at historic Fenway Park in Boston on July 3rd to watch the Boston Red Sox take-on the San Diego Padres.
During the day, position players will have the opportunity to hit in the batting cages and the bullpen mounds will be available for pitchers. The entire team will be given a tour of Fenway Park and baseball facilities.
The roster features 21 players who took part in the Dominican Summer League Camp in May, while three players – Charles Leblanc (Laval, QC), Matthew Lloyd (Okotoks, AB) and JP Stevenson (Hunter River, PEI) – have been added to the roster.
The coaching 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) round out the staff.
The New England Summer Tour is an important step in the evaluation 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 Cup in September.”
In mid-August, the Junior National Team will travel to Australia’s Gold Coast for a final selection camp where 20-players will be selected to represent Canada at the IBAF 18U World Cup.
You can stay up-to-date on the Junior National Teams progress in New England by following Baseball Canada Games on Twitter: www.twitter.com/team_c_updates
