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The Stetson University Hatters shutout Baseball Canada’s national junior team 13-0 behind only nine hits, Sunday, in the final game of the 2006 Fall Instructional League in Deland, Florida.

The Instructional League, which serves for Baseball Canada as the first of four steps in the selection process for the 2007 National junior team, allows Canada’s stars or the future to face elite-level athletes from Division I college teams and developmental professional teams who belong to Major League Baseball Organizations.

For the second straight day, seventeen-year-old Chad Stang (Surrey, B.C.) was 2-for-3 in a losing effort while 16-year-old Michael Mutcheson (Morden, Manitoba) was a perfect 2-for-2. They were the only Canadian players to collect hits.

Canada issued 11 walks, hit five batters and committed three errors, allowing the Hatters to score 13 runs on nine hits even though they stranded 12 runners on the base paths.

Stetson jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first inning behind one walk, two hit batsmen and three consecutive singles allowed by starter Cameron Gray (Toronto, Ont.). However, Stetson pulled away when they scored three runs with two away in the second inning.  After the two first batters were retired, a hit batsman was followed by a single, two walks and a throwing error to make it 6-0. A wild pitch allowed the seventh run to score

Two walks, another plunked batter and a single made it 9-0 in the third before Stetson added two more in the fourth and solo markers in the sixth and seventh.

The second step in the selection process for the 2007 National Junior Team will take place during Baseball Canada’s Spring Training program slated for April 18 to 29, 2007 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.