OTTAWA- Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, MB) tossed three scoreless innings against the Houston Astros prospects, but unfortunately the damage had already been done as the Junior National Team dropped a 10-1 decision at Champion Stadium in Orlando.
Onyshko came into the game with his team down by nine runs and shut the Astros down striking out two, while giving up five hits and a walk in three innings of work.
Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) scored the only run for the juniors which came in the fifth when he doubled off the wall in left field and moved to third on a ground out before scoring on a wild pitch.
The Astros got to JNT starter JP Stevenson (Hunter River, PEI) early as two infield singles and a walk in the top of the first came around to score on a bases clearing triple.
After a fly-out moved the runner to third, a sac-fly scored the Astros fourth run of the inning.
Things didn’t get much better for Stevenson and the juniors in the second frame as two more runs came into count as two runs scored on a single after an error and walk put both runners on.
Stevenson managed to get out of the inning leaving the bases loaded before he tossed a scoreless third to end his three inning outing.
In addition to Morgan’s double, other hits came off the bats of Lucas Zilli (Mississauga, ON) and Tristan Clarke (Brampton, ON).
The Astros went onto to score four runs off reliever Keenan Williams (Vancouver, BC) with three of them being earned.
A two-out double followed by an RBI single made it 7-0 in the fourth, while a lead-off double scored on a two-out single in the top of the fifth.
After Morgan scored to get the juniors on the board in the fifth, an error allowed a pair of Astros runs to score in the sixth after both runners reached on singles.
Notes: The juniors will play the French National Team tomorrow led by Manager Eric Gagne (Mascouche, QC), the 2003 NL Cy Young Award winner and former Canadian National Team player…First pitch is at 1pm ET at Champion Stadium on the grounds of ESPN Wide World of Sports where Isaac Anesty (Guelph, ON) is expected to start.
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