Ronchi Dei Legionari, Italy-The Junior National Team has played their first three games of the pre-worlds exhibition series in Italy and is off to a perfect, 3-0 record.
The exhibition series serves as a tune-up for the IBAF 18U World Championship in Seoul, South Korea August 30th-September 8th. The juniors will open the tournament on August 30th when they take on Panama at 5am ET.
Here is a recap of games played in Italy thus far.
August 21st
JNT 15 USA Selects 2
After both teams scored a run in the first inning the juniors took control of the game in the second inning which set off a string of four, multi-run innings in a 15-2 romp over USA Selects. Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) started on the hill for the juniors and after surrendering a run in the first inning worked three perfect frames before the Selects added another run in the fifth. Quantrill threw five innings giving up two runs on two hits and one walk, while fanning five batters.
On offence, the juniors pounded out thirteen hits with three coming off the bat of Nathan DeSouza (Milton, ON) who collected three RBIs, while Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, ON) went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
The biggest blow offensively came off the bat of Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) who belted a two-run home run over the wall in right field during a three-run fourth inning.
Christian Botnick (Brampton, ON) threw two scoreless innings without allowing a hit or a walk, although he did hit one batter.
Michael Clouthier (Guelph, ON) also threw two innings, when teams were using the IBAF extra-innings rule, and gave up two runs, while striking out three batters.
August 20th
JNT 5 Italy 3
Down 3-2 in the sixth, the juniors tied the score on a Brett Siddall (Windsor, ON) base-hit and scored runs in the seventh and eighth innings to defeat Italy 5-3.
Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, ON) gave-up three runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk during four innings of work and struck out five Italian batters. Brandon Radmacher (White City, SK) made his JNT debut and allowed only one hit in two innings of work, while striking out three batters.
The eventual game-winning run came off the bat of Jacob Robson (Windsor, ON) who doubled in the seventh to score Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, MB). Brett Siddall and Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) each collected two hits with Morgan scoring one run and Siddall collecting two RBIs.
JNT 4 USA Selects 3
Gareth Morgan’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth gave the juniors a 4-3, walk-off win over the USA Selects. The three-run ninth saw the juniors come back from a 3-1 deficit to record their second win of the day. Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON) impressed on the mound as he started and gave-up two runs, while fanning nine in five innings of work.
Christian Botnick and Logan Seifrit (Spruce Grove, AB) each worked one inning of scoreless relief, while Myles Vincent (Corner Brook, NL) made his JNT debut and gave-up one unearned run in two innings on the mound.
On offence, the juniors collected seven hits and scored their first run of the game in the fifth when Daniel Pinero (Toronto, ON) scored from third on a wild-pitch.
Notes: The juniors will take on Italy today at 2:30pm ET where Jake Marks (Brights Grove, ON) is expected to start.
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