OTTAWA- The 2010 version of the Junior National Team featured a group of 20 teenagers that won the hearts of the locals in Thunder Bay, Ontario when the northwestern Ontario community played host to the IBAF World Junior Baseball Championship.
Capacity crowds packed Port Arthur Stadium in Thunder Bay to cheer on Team Canada as they walked-off the Czech Republic in dramatic fashion to win their first round pool and trounced Italy in a quarter-final match-up before losing a heartbreaker to Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals.
Following the tournament, players went their separate to begin either their professional or college careers, while some came back for another year of eligibility in 2011.
Eight members of the 2010 team are currently in the midst of their professional careers and four of them are profiled in todays ‘In the minors’ segment with the remaining four to come next week.
Justin Atkinson (Surrey, BC) IF Lansing Lugnuts – A (Blue Jays)
A 2011 26th round selection of the Toronto Blue Jays, Atkinson is in his first year of full season baseball with single A Lansing. Battling some injury issues that has seen him land on the 7-day disabled list twice through the first three months of the season, Atkinson has been very productive when in the line-up hitting .329 with one home run and 17 RBI in 43 games. In four games since returning to the Lugnuts lineup on July 11th, he is 6-for-16 with one RBI. Atkinson last appeared in a Canadian uniform during the 2011 COPABE Americas 18U World Cup Qualifier in Columbia.
Kellin Deglan (Langley, BC) C Hickory Crawdads – A (Rangers)
Taken by the Texas Rangers 22nd overall in the 2010 draft, Deglan is currently in his fifth professional season at the age of 22. After reaching High-A Myrtle Beach in 2013, Deglan was sent back to single A Hickory at the beginning of 2014, a place where he spent both the 2011 and 2012 seasons. He might not be long for a promotion as he is enjoying a career season in the home run category swatting 14 long-balls through the first 74 games of the season. In 2012, he belted 12 homers in Hickory and matched that number in 2013 with Myrtle Beach. In addition to his 14 home runs, Deglan has driven in 50 which also accounts for a career-high, while his .254 batting average puts him on pace to eclipse his career-high of .234. Deglan last appeared in a Canadian uniform at the 2012 World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Germany.
Evan Grills (Whitby, ON) LHP Lancaster JetHawks – High A (Astros)
Another member of the 2010 Canadian draft class, Grills went in the tenth round to the Houston Astros after a four-year stint with the Junior National Team that saw him play in both the 2008 and 2010 World Junior Championships. The left-hander started the 2014 season at Single A Quad Cities before being promoted to High A in early July. In 16 games (10 starts) with Quad Cities, Grills compiled a 3-3 record with 2.70 ERA in 76 and 2/3 innings. He’s carried that success over to Lancaster where he’s made two starts (10 IP) giving up only two earned runs. Grills last appeared in a Canadian uniform in 2010 at the World Junior Championship in Thunder Bay.
Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) RHP Hagerstown Suns – A (Nationals)
Pivetta went undrafted out of high school and headed to New Mexico Junior College where he put up a dominant 2013 season catching the attention of the Washington Nationals who took the right-hander in the fourth round of last year’s draft. Armed with a fastball that reaches the mid 90’s, Pivetta opened his first full professional season with Hagerstown and has become arguably their best starter winning 11 games through 16 starts. Although he didn’t participate, Pivetta was named to the South Atlantic League North Division All-Star team by virtue of his win total and sub-4.00 ERA. Pivetta last wore the red and white in 2011 for the Junior National Teams Cuba Summer Series.
