San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic- A base hit that squeaked up the middle beyond the outstretched glove of LP Pelletier (Montréal, QC) brought in the tying and winning runs as the Toronto Blue Jays Dominican prospects erased a one run deficit to walk-off with a 6-5 win over the Junior National Team.
Reliever Nolan Bumstead (Calgary, AB) hit the first batter he faced in the ninth and after a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second, a passed ball brought the runner to third and a walk gave the Jays runners on the corners with one out.
The juniors had a chance to get the runner at third after they got him in a rundown after the throw from the catcher went down to second on an attempted steal, but when the dust settled the Jays had runners on second and third with only one out.
JF Garon (Terrebonne, QC) made a running catch in right field for the second out before the base hit up the middle gave the Jays the win.
The juniors held the lead for most of the game scoring runs in each of the third and fourth frames before the Jays struck for one in the fifth and three in the sixth. The juniors re-took the lead with a three-spot in the seventh.
JNT starter Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, MB) turned in a solid performance on the mound tossing six innings allowing only one earned run, scattering seven hits and fanning eight.
After giving up a lead-off single in the first, Onyshko retired eleven batters in a row before giving up a two-out single in the fourth only to strikeout the next batter he faced to end the inning.
“I felt good out there,” said Onyshko after the game. “Physically, everything was working for me and I was able to get ahead of hitters.”
The juniors opened the scoring in the third when Darren Shred (Brampton, ON) doubled to left and came around to score on an error at shortstop.
They added to their lead in the fourth loading the bases after singles from Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) and Mitch Robinson (Surrey, BC), while Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) reached when the second baseman mishandled a sure-fire double play ball. Tristan Clarke (Brampton, ON) then stepped to the plate and lifted a fly ball to right field that allowed Bigras to easily tag and score from third base.
With the juniors down by two in the seventh, Mitch Robinson came through with a bases loaded single that brought in a pair, while Demi Orimoloye beat out a grounder at first base that plated the go ahead run.
Bumstead took the mound in the seventh and worked out of trouble after an error and walk by getting a fly-out to end the frame.
He then worked a perfect eighth inning before the Jays scored two in the ninth that ended the game.
Offensively, Mitch Robinson and Mitch Bigras led the way with each collecting two hits as part of the Junior National Teams nine hit attack.
