DUNEDIN-The Toronto Blue Jays prospects hammered-out 16 hits and took advantage of four Junior National Team errors to cruise to a 14-5 win today at the Bobby Mattick Complex.
The juniors led 5-1 after two and a half innings, but failed to hold the Jays offence off the board the rest of the way.
Trailing 1-0 after one, the juniors jumped on the board in the top of the second when Lachlan Fontaine (North Vancouver, BC) doubled with the bases loaded to put his club 3-1.
JNT starter Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) managed to get out of trouble in the home half of the second by recording a strikeout to end the inning with two runners on.
After the Jays issued three consecutive free passes to open up the third, Jake Lumley (Windsor, ON) came through with an RBI single and Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) followed with a sac-fly to put the juniors on top 5-1.
Horne’s three inning outing did not finish the way he would have liked as he gave up a lead-off home run in the bottom of the third and later allowed a double, single and triple which scored two runs and brought the Jays to within one run of the lead.
With Connor Noble (Vancouver, BC) now on the mound, the Jays scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth with the big blow coming in the form of a two-run homer after two runs had already scored earlier in the inning.
Tyler O’Neill picked up his third hit in three games in the sixth when he doubled with two out, but was left standing on second base after a ground out.
In the sixth, the juniors didn’t do themselves any favours as a double, a walk and two errors brought in two more Jays runs which made the score 10-5.
With the scores now 11-5, JNT reliever Sean Ratcliffe (Ajax, ON) gave up the third Jays homer of the afternoon, a two-run shot, and later walked in a run with the bases loaded which rounded out the scoring for the Jays.
Jake Lumley had two of the juniors six hits on the day with O’Neill, Fontaine, Chris Thibedeau (Dartmouth, NS) and Morgan Lofstrom (Kelowna, BC) picking up the others.
Notes: The juniors will face the Washington Nationals prospects tomorrow at ESPN Wide World of Sports with the first pitch coming at 1pm ET…Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) is expected to start on the mound.
