OTTAWA-Baseball Canada announced today the names of 24 players that will travel to Havana, Cuba for an nine-game exhibition series against the Cuban U-18 National Team from July 5 - 11.
All nine games will take place at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, the site of the historic Cuba vs Tampa Bay Rays spring training game that took place in March.
The Cuba Summer Series is the first camp in the selection process that will help determine the 20-player roster that will represent Canada in the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario from September 1 – 10, 2017. Of the 24 players named to the Cuba Summer Series roster, 23 are eligible for the world cup next year.
“We’re at the point in our program where we can get a sense of what our roster may look like in Thunder Bay, next year,” said Head Coach and Director of National Teams, Greg Hamilton. “The experience in Cuba will provide our team with a feel for international baseball against a country that is known to compete at a very high level.”
Prior to Cuba, the Junior National Team will assemble in Toronto where they will be guests of the Blue Jays on Canada Day and participate in pregame festivities at Rogers Centre. On July 2nd, the squad will travel to Barrie to take on the Intercounty Baseball League All-Stars (2pm ET) at Coates Stadium. Details on the game including the IBL roster can be found here.
After a workout on July 3rd, players, coaches and staff will travel from Toronto to Havana on July 4th.
Roster highlights:
-Of the 24 players named to the roster, 21 have previous Junior National Team program experience, while Archer Brookman (Montréal, QC), Austin Brown (Powell River, BC) and Harley Gollert (Toronto, ON) will be making their debuts with the program.
-Three players named to the roster were selected earlier this month during the MLB First-Year Player Draft: OF Clayton Keyes (17th round, Blue Jays), RHP William Sierra (28th round, Mets) and OF Tyler Duncan (30th round, Mariners).
-Two players (Cooper Davis and Adam Hall) named to the roster represented Canada at the 2015 WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Osaka, Japan where the team finished in sixth.
-Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON) leads the coaching staff that also includes Hyung Cho (Scarborough, ON) and Mike Johnson (Sherwood Park, AB).
Follow the Cuba Summer Series:
With the exception of two games (July 6th, 10am and July 9th, 10am), all games will be streamed live from Havana on Cubavision Internacional Live (http://www.fidelista-por-siempre.org/CubaVision-en-Vivo.aspx).
Baseball Canada will also provide live game updates on Twitter via @Team_C_Updates.
Social Media Links:
Twitter: twitter.com/Team_C_Updates
Twitter: twitter.com/baseballcanada
Facebook: facebook.com/baseballcanada
Instagram: instagram.com/baseballcanada
Team Info:
