Guerra, Dominican Republic- The Junior National Team scored five runs in the top of the seventh erasing a 3-0 deficit and Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) belted a two-run homer in the eighth to cap an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers Dominican prospects.
The win over the Dodgers, combined with a win earlier in the day over the DSL Mets gave the juniors a doubleheader sweep and improved their Dominican Summer League record to 4-5 with three games left to play.
The Dodgers had held the juniors’ bats at bay limiting them to just one hit through six innings and at one point retiring 16 in a row until Peter Hutzal (Calgary, AB) lined a single to left to lead-off the seventh which set the stage for the five run inning.
With Hutzal on first, a failed pick-off attempt moved him to second and he scored on a single from JF Garon (Terrebonne, QC) where the ball got by the right fielder allowing Garon to move to third. Matt Lloyd (Okotoks, AB) then stepped to the plate and delivered his first of two RBI singles on the afternoon where the ball was again misplayed by the fielder allowing Lloyd to reach third.
After three more Dodger errors and a Luke Horanski (Dugald, MB) RBI single, the juniors found themselves out in front 5-3.
Prior to the seventh, the Dodgers held a 3-0 lead scoring one in the first off starter Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) coming with two out on an RBI single, one in the third after an error with two-out scored on a triple, and added one in the fourth after a lead-off triple scored on a wild pitch.
Horne tossed four innings and was only charged with two earned runs.
Colton Wood (Victoria, BC) took over for Horne in the fifth and looked good early retiring eight of the first nine hitters he faced.
A one-out single he gave up in the sixth was quickly erased when catcher Darren Shred (Mississauga, ON) gunned down the runner at first on a pick-off.
In the top half of the eighth, JF Garon singled, stole second and scored on Matt Lloyd’s single to centre that set the stage for Morgan’s home run to left. On a 1-1 count, Morgan hammered a belt-high fastball and sent it well beyond the left field fence making the score 8-3.
The Dodgers added a run in the ninth after Wood walked the lead-off batter who stole second, advanced to third on a wild-pitch and scored on an error.
Wood recorded the win with a five-inning effort giving up no earned runs, scattered two hits and walked one, while he added four strikeouts.
Offensively, the juniors had 11 hits with four players (Garon, Morgan, Robinson, Lloyd) having multi-hit games.
Up Next: The juniors will travel to Boca Chica tomorrow where they will take-on the Seattle Mariners Dominican prospects at their brand new $9 million complex at 11am ET…RHP Matt Ianni (Ottawa, ON) is expected to start… You can receive live updates from the game by following @Team_C_Updates on Twitter.
Twitter: @baseballcanada / @Team_C_Updates
