BOCA CHICA, DR – The Junior National Team continue to have great success over their competition in the Dominican Republic. This time, the DSL Minnesota Twins fell victim to the offensive attack and precision pitching of the Canadians as the Juniors came up with an easy 7-1 win.
For the sixth time in seven games, the Juniors opened the scoring in the first inning. Marcus Knecht (Toronto, ON) hit into a fielder’s choice to bring in James Kottaras (Markham, ON) for the games first run.
The Twins would tie it up in the bottom of the second off of Canadian starter Jake Eliopoulos (Newmarket, ON). That would be the only run allowed by Eliopoulos as he would go for three innings, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out a pair.
The Juniors would retake the lead in the fifth inning as three Canadian runners would cross the plate in the frame. Jonathan Gilbert (St-Georges, QC), Dale Anderson (Strathmore, AB) and Maxx Tissenbaum (Toronto, ON) would all come in to score and give Canada a 4-1 lead.
Anderson, who was 1-for-1 with a two runs, an RBI, a pair of walks and was hit by a pitch, drove in Michael Crouse in the sixth inning on an RBI single to make 5-1 Canada.
The lead would climb to six in the seventh inning when James Kottaras came in to score his second run of the game on Luke Willson’s (Lasalle, ON) RBI single.
That would be more that enough for the young men on the mound for Canada as David Walkling (Nanaimo, BC) and Evan Grills (Whitby, ON) would combine to shut out the Twins for the last six innings. Walkling scattered three hits and gave up a walk in three innings on the mound, while Grills allowed only two runners to reach and struck out six.
The final run came in for the Canadians in the ninth inning when Dale Anderson scored on an Ivan Hartle (North Vancouver, BC) single.
The Junior National Team continues its Dominican tour with a matchup against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, May 28 at 11 am in Boca Chica.
