OTTAWA-Junior National Team alum Dalton Pompey (Mississauga, ON) tripled and scored two runs as the Toronto Blue Jays Fall Instructional League club defeated the Junior National Team 11-5 at the Bobby Mattick Complex in Dunedin.
The Jays jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI triple off the bat of Dickie Thon who later scored on a passed ball. Later in the inning, Pompey tripled to left and scored on a sac-fly.
After the first, JNT starter Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) settled in tossing a scoreless inning in the second before a lead-off single followed by two walks and sac-fly in the third put the Jays up by four runs.
In the fifth, the juniors took advantage of four walks, two singles and a hit batter to score four runs to tie the score. Robert Byckowski (Etobicoke, ON) was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning and after Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) walked with one out, Ian Wilson (Toronto, ON) singled to bring in Byckowski. Mitchell Robinson (Surrey, BC) then singled to left that scored Orimoloye and Charles Leblanc (Laval, QC) walked to load the bases. Royce Ando (Mississauga, ON) and LP Pelletier (Montréal, QC) drew back-to-back walks and all of a sudden the score was tied at four.
The Jays regained the lead quickly scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth as Dalton Pompey scored from third on a sac-fly. Reliever Zach Pop (Brampton, ON) had actually struck out Pompey with one out, but the ball got by the catcher allowing him to reach first base. Pompey advanced to third base on a double.
Pop’s two innings of work saw him give up one unearned run and allow two hits and one walk, while striking out two batters.
The Jays went on to score a run in the sixth and four in the seventh off reliever Jackson Wark (St. Albert, AB) , although only three were earned, and added another in the eighth after an RBI single off of Tristan Clarke (Brampton, ON).
Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) reached on an error in the ninth and later came around to score from third base on a wild-pitch to make the score 11-5.
Notes: The next event on the Junior National Team calendar will take place March 6th-16th in St. Petersburg, Florida for the annual Spring Training/Alumni Week.
