HOUSTON, Texas-Twenty-four of the top Canadian 18 and under baseball players are on the campus of the University of Houston this week vying for 20 spots on the roster that will represent Canada at the COPBABE 18U Pan American Championship from September 5th to 14th in Los Cabos/La Paz, Mexico.
The top four finishers in Mexico will qualify for the 2015 IBAF 18U World Cup in Koshien, Japan.
Players and staff got settled into their new surroundings yesterday at Cougar Field, home of the University of Houston baseball program, where they will be spending the next six days holding workouts and playing exhibition games in preparation for Mexico.
Five players here this week return from the team that participated in the 2013 IBAF 18U World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan where Canada finished seventh.
One player from that team, Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON), is in Houston this week with Team Canada embarking on his final tour with the Junior National Team (18U) program that started when he was just 14 years old in 2010.
“It’s kind of a weird feeling knowing that this will be my last trip with the (junior) team,” said Morgan who signed with the Seattle Mariners after they made him a second round selection last June in the MLB Draft. “It seems like not too long ago I was coming on my first trip and now this is the end (of my junior career).
“I’m really looking forward to this event and helping Canada qualify for (next year’s) World Cup.”
Morgan is a veteran of one 18U Pan American Championship (Colombia-2011) and two 18U World Cups (South Korea-2012 and Taiwan-2013) and knows that the competition will be intense in Mexico as countries compete for only four spots in next year’s World Cup.
“International baseball is really intense and anything can happen in any given game,” he said. “I think our team will be well prepared after this week to handle some of the challenges we will face once we get down there.”
After holding a pair of workouts at Cougar Field, Team Canada will play San Jacinto Junior College tomorrow (3pm ET) before opening up a four game exhibition series against Team USA, who is also in Houston preparing for the Pan American Championship.
USA Baseball’s 18U program is on quite a roll as of late having the past two 18U World Cups (2012, 2013) and also the most recent 18U Pan American Championship that took place in 2011 in Colombia where they defeated Canada in the gold medal game.
“Team USA always has a great team so we know we’ll be in tough this week (with the exhibition games),” added Morgan. “These games will definitely help us get ready (for Mexico).”
Just last month, all players here in Houston with the exception of Morgan travelled to Cuba to face their 18U squad in an eight-game exhibition series. With the games coming up this week combined with the series in Cuba, Canada will have faced two of the premiere 18U playing nations in the world which should bode well in terms of preparation for the challenges that lie ahead.
Stay up-to-date with Team Canada this week in Houston by following @baseballcanada and @Team_C_Updates on Twitter.
All of the exhibition contests against the United States will have live scoring available through USABaseball.com.
