BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic – The Junior National Team had their sights set on their first win of the Dominican Summer League tour but that was spoiled by the Minnesota Twins Dominican prospects who scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to come away with a 7-5 victory.
Damiano Palmegiani (Surrey, BC) belted a two-run homer in the fourth for his second homer in as many days and gave the juniors a three run lead but a run in the bottom of the inning followed by the four-run outburst in the seventh turned the tables in the Twins’ favour.
SCORING
-It didn’t take long for the Junior National Team to get on the scoreboard as Daniel Carinci (Ajax, ON) led off with a walk and moved to third when TJ Schofield-Sam (Brampton, ON) reached on an error. Noah Naylor (Mississauga, ON) stepped to the plate with one out and on the 11thpitch of the at bat, hit a hard grounder to second base that scored Carinci and gave Naylor an RBI.
-The juniors added to their lead in the third and it was Daniel Carinci who got things going slicing a double to right and scoring two batters later when Cesar Valero (Calgary, AB) drilled a double into the gap in right-centre. Noah Naylor’s double to left scored Valero and gave Naylor his second RBI of the game.
-The Twins jumped back into the ballgame in the home half of the third using a leadoff single off Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Newmarket, ON) followed by a two run homer to left-centre that brought them to within one run of the lead.
-With Denzel Clarke (Pickering, ON) standing on third base and two out, Damiano Palmegiani drilled a 1-0 offering over the wall in left-centre. The home run was his second in as many days.
-A leadoff walk in the fourth, followed by a one out walk and wild pitch gave the Twins runners on second and third before a groundout to shortstop scored the runner from third.
-Back-to-back walks issued by reliever Jaden Griffin (Lower Sackville, NS) started the bottom of the seventh and the Twins got lucky when a sky-high pop-up fell into no mans land in shallow centre. With one run across the plate Palmegiani picked up the ball in right and sailed a throw over second that went all the way into foul territory in left field and brought the tying run in. A single to left would score the go ahead run before a triple to centre gave the Twins an insurance marker.
QUICK HITS
-Starter Keegan Pulford-Thorpe worked his way out of trouble in the first, stranding a pair before leaving a runner on in third. He saved his best inning for last tossing a 1-2-3 fifth and ended his five-inning outing with five strikeouts.
-Palmegiani’s blast cleared the 381 feet sign in left-centre and landed well beyond the fence.
-Griffin took over for Pulford-Thorpe in the sixth and fanned two while also picking off a runner who reached on an error.
UP NEXT
The Junior National Team will play a doubleheader tomorrow beginning with a match-up against the DSL Rays in Guerra at 10:00AM ET followed by a contest against the DSL Dodgers… RHP Connor Sparks (Saskatoon, SK) will get the nod against the Rays while RHP Evan Elliott (Toronto, ON) starts against the Dodgers.
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