GUERRA, Dominican Republic- Mike Soroka (Calgary, AB), Brad Smith (Vancouver, BC) and Tristan Clarke (Brampton, ON) combined to limit the Tampa Bay Rays Dominican prospects to just one run on seven hits and walked only two, while the Junior National Team’s offence pounded out nine hits and scored six runs in cruising to a 6-1 victory.
The juniors got off to a great start in the top of the first as LP Pelletier (Montréal, QC) led-off with a double to left field and later came in to score on a groundout to third off the bat of Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON).
Starter Mike Soroka was impressive from the moment he took the mound not allowing a hit until his fourth and final inning that came on a lead-off single that was quickly erased when catcher Andrew Yerzy (North York, ON) threw the runner out at second attempting to steal.
Soroka only walked one batter and struck out four.
In the fifth, Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) led-off with a single to right and proceeded to steal second and third base before coming in to score after an error at shortstop.
Brad Smith took the mound for the bottom of the fifth and gave-up a single to the first batter he faced, but immediately picked the runner off at first before getting a fly-out and lineout to end the inning.
With two out in the top half of the sixth, LP Pelletier delivered a single to right, stole second and advanced to third on a wild-pitch before he scored when Matt Lloyd (Okotoks, AB) lined a single to right field.
Smith got through the sixth allowing a one-out walk, but gave-up a pair of bunt singles in the bottom of the seventh that led to a run coming in on two-out single to left field.
With the score 3-1 in the eighth, Tristan Clarke came out of the bullpen and got two quick outs before giving up a double only to come back and strike out the next batter he faced to end the inning.
The juniors put the game out of reach in the ninth scoring three times with Matt Lloyd picking up his second RBI of the game on a single, while two more runs scored when the Rays committed a pair of errors.
Clarke came back out for the ninth to close things out and struck out one batter for his second punch-out of the game.
Offensively, Pelletier, Lloyd, Orimoloye and Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) collected two hits apiece, while Gareth Morgan had one.
The juniors will travel to Boca Chica this afternoon to play the New York Yankees Dominican prospects at 2:30pm ET.
