ORLANDO-The Detroit Tigers prospects broke a scoreless tie with a run in the sixth inning and added runs in the eighth and ninth for a 7-0 win over the Junior National Team today in spring training action.
The juniors received some excellent pitching on the day led by starter Dylan Brooks (Dorchester, ON) who tossed three shutout innings without giving up a hit.
After getting three groundouts in the top of the first, Brooks walked the first two batters he faced in the second before getting a strikeout followed by an inning ending double-play.
Brooks sat the Tigers down in order in the top of the third with a fly-out, ground-out and strikeout.
Brodie Harkness (Bowmanville, ON) came on in relief of Brooks and had a stellar outing of his own tossing two shutout innings and giving up only two hits and one walk, while striking out one.
The JNT bats were kept quiet until the bottom of the fourth when Chris Thibedeau (Dartmouth, NS) singled with two-out and Malik Collymore (Mississauga, ON) followed with a walk, but both runners were left stranded after a fly-out ended the threat.
Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) kept his hot bat going in the fifth with a lead-off double and later advanced to third on a wild-pitch, only to be left stranded.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the top of the sixth when reliever Daniel Procopio (Toronto, ON) gave-up a two-out double that scored on an RBI single.
Procopio escaped a jam in the seventh when he induced a ground ball to end the inning with runners on second and third.
The Tigers broke the game open in the top of the eight with a four-run outburst to go in front 5-0.
A lead-off triple, off JNT reliever Christian Botter (Maple, ON), scored on an error before three runs scored off a double and two-run single.
The Tigers added to the lead in the ninth off of an RBI double and a sacrifice-fly.
In addition to Thibedeau and O’Neill, Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON), Morgan Lofstrom (Kelowna, BC) and Mitchell Bigras (Sarnia, ON) had hits for the JNT.
Notes: The juniors will travel to the Bobby Mattick Complex in Dunedin tomorrow where they will take-on the Toronto Blue Jays prospects at 1pm ET…LHP Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) is scheduled to start.
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