OTTAWA- Baseball Canada announced today 25 players that have been invited to the team’s final selection camp at Palm Meadows Baseball Complex in Gold Coast, Australia from August 16-26.
At the conclusion of the selection camp, 20-players will be selected to represent Canada at the IBAF 18U World Cup August 30th-September 8th in Taichung, Taiwan.
Players, coaches and staff will depart for Australia on August 13th and practice on August 16th and 17th before opening a 10-game exhibition series against the Australian Junior National Team and Reseisha Medical College from Japan. The exhibition series will see the juniors play six games against Australia and four games against Reseisha Medical College including a doubleheader on August 22nd.
“This camp will allow the coaching staff an opportunity to evaluate players before making final roster decisions,” said Junior National Team Head Coach, Greg Hamilton. “The World Cup is the culmination of a year of hard work and preparation for our Junior National Team program. Our coaches and players are looking forward to this opportunity to represent Canada and intend on being a competitive club in Taichung.”
The Junior National Team pre-worlds selection camp roster features:
-Five players that were members of 2012 Junior National Team that won silver at the 2012 IBAF 18U World Cup in Seoul, Korea (Gareth Morgan, Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, Travis Seabrooke, and Owen Spiwak)
-Ten players chosen in June’s MLB First Year Player Draft (Malik Collymore-Cardinals; Lachlan Fontaine-Mariners; Morgan Loftstrom-Reds; Tyler O’Neill-Mariners; Daniel Procopio-Mets; Cal Quantrill-Yankees; Sean Ratcliffe-Blue Jays; Travis Seabrooke-Orioles; Owen Spiwak-Mets; Chris Thibideau-Padres)
-Six of the drafted players have since signed professional contracts (Collymore, Fontaine, Loftstrom, O’Neill, Ratcliffe and Seabrooke)
-The coaching staff is led by Head Coach Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON) along with Pitching Coach Chris Reitsma (Calgary, AB) and Coaches Hyung Cho (Scarborough, ON) and Corey Eckstein (Abbotsford, BC)
In Taichung, Canada will be joined in Pool A with Japan, Mexico, Czech Republic, Venezuela and host Chinese Taipei.
Pool B will consist of reigning gold medalists the United States along with Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Italy and Cuba.
Teams will play a round-robin style format in round one with the top three records in each pool advancing to round two.
Following round two, the top two records will meet for gold, while the third a fourth best records will play to decide the bronze medal.
An official tournament schedule has not yet been released by the IBAF.
