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Baseball Canada's National Junior Team was edged 2-1 today by the Cleveland Indians’ instructional team, dropping its record to 0-2 at the 2006 Fall Instructional league at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

Leslie Williams (Scarborough, Ont.) drove in the only Canadian run thanks to a single that scored Chris Bisson (Ottawa, Ont.).

Carter Bell (Courtenay, B.C.) had a pair of hits, while Steve Bone (Toronto, Ont.) and Chad Stang (Surrey, B.C.) also collected hits for Canada.

Pitching kept Canada in the game as five hurlers combined to give up one earned run and five hits.

Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Qué) and Corey Pappel (Mississauga, Ont.) split the first four innings, giving up one hit each. Daniel Britton-Foster (Ladysmith, B.C.) then threw a hitless fifth before Matt Jebb (Toronto, Ont.) gave up one run on three hits in two innings of work.

Derek Sinke (Bowen Island, B.C.) worked the final inning, where Cleveland scored the final maker of the game without a base hit.

Canada’s pitchers struck out a combined 12 hitters: Aumont (3), Pappel (3), Britton-Foster (2), Jebb (2), Sinke (2).

The narrow defeat dropped Canada to 0-2 in the Fall Instructional League after a 10-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves’ instructional team in the league opener.

Atlanta attacked early by scoring four runs in the second inning and two more in the fourth to jump out to a 6-0 lead.

Canada got on the board in the top of the fifth when Kyle Fillier’s (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) single to centre field allowed Brian Ivan (Toronto, Ont.) to trot home from third to make it 6-1.

The Braves extended their lead to 10-1 in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Braden Bauml (Muenster, Sask.) smacked a two-RBI single that scored Philippe Deslisle (Lonoraie, Qué.) and Williams to make it 10-3, but the Canadians wouldn’t get any closer.

Williams was 2-for-4 with a run scored and Bauml was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI to pace the Canadians. Ivan was 1-for-3 with a run scored, Fillier was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Deslisle also scored to chip in.

Canada’s next match-up comes against the Detroit Tigers’ instructional team, Monday.  Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.