ORLANDO- The Junior National ended the Spring Training Camp with a 9-1 loss at the hands of the Houston Astros.
The JNT used eight pitchers who threw one inning each, while one pitcher threw two.
Tom Robson (Ladner, BC), who made his third appearance of camp, started for the JNT and gave up a run on an RBI single. Robson struck out one batter.
Skylar Janisse (Maidstone, ON) kept his strong camp going, by throwing a shutout inning in the 2nd that included a strikeout.
With two-out in the bottom of the 2nd, Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) doubled and advanced to third, but was left stranded on a groundout.
Jesen Dygestile-Therrien (Montréal, QC) also worked a shutout inning and struck out one batter in the third.
Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, ON) was the lone Canadian pitcher to throw more than one inning as he took the mound for the 4th and 5th frames. Kellogg would sit-down the Astros in order in the fourth on a pop-out and two strikeouts. In the 5th, he gave up a run on an RBI single with a runner on second base.
Ethan Elias (Entwistle, AB), Dayton Dawe (London, ON) and Logan Seifrit (Spruce Grove, AB) each tossed one inning with each giving up one run. Dawe recorded two strikeouts in his inning of work.
The Juniors were unable to muster much offence on the day as the club picked up only four hits. In addition to Morgan’s double, Kyle Hann (Oakville, ON), Justin Atkinson (Surrey, BC) and Jerod Bartnik (Surrey, BC) each had singles.
The Astros touched-up Tanner Spencer (Craik, SK) for four runs in the 9th, with only two of the runs being earned. An error was committed in the inning which allowed a batter to reach base and a runner to advance to third, both runners came around to score. Spencer also walked two in the inning and struck out two batters.
Notes: It will be a quick turnaround for the JNT as they will next assemble in the Dominican Republic from May 18th-27th …In the Dominican, the Juniors will play twelve exhibition contests against teams in the Dominican Summer League…The complete JNT schedule can be found here… The Dominican Summer League Camp is an important step in the process as the JNT will attempt to qualify for the 2012 World Junior Baseball Championship (scheduled for Seoul, South Korea) at the Americas World Junior Qualification Tournament in Cartagena, Colombia from September 23rd - October 2nd, 2011… For more information on the JNT program, please click here.
