Baseball Canada’s National Junior Team prospects lost their final spring training game 15-6 to the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
The Braves pounded out 22 hits en route to their victory over the young Canadians, who now set their sights on the Dominican Summer League late in May. Of the 28 players who began camp, approximately 25 will move on to the Dominican Summer League, which will serve as the third of four steps in the selection process for the National Junior Team that will compete at the World Junior Championships in September.
“We’ve been down here long enough and we’ve seen a lot of these guys in October as well at the Fall Instructional League, so we’re pretty comfortable with who we’re going to be bringing,” said National Junior Team Head Coach Greg Hamilton. “I terms of finalizing this particular group of guys, that will happen within a week to 10 days from when we get back.”
Atlanta’s attack, Saturday, was furious and constant, scoring at least two runs in each of the first five innings. After the Braves jumped out to a 7-1 lead by the end of the third inning, the Canadians mounted a comeback with a five-run fourth to cut the lead to 7-6.
Jonathan Waltenbury (Bowmanville, Ont.) doubled in Tyson Gillies (Langley, B.C.) and Matt McCarney earned an RBI-single up the middle to make it 7-3. Leslie Williams (Scarborough, Ont.) followed with a two-run triple and later scored on a single from the bat of Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, B.C.) to make it a one run ball game. That was as close as the Canadians would get as Atlanta continued to pour it on, answering in the bottom half of the fourth with their second of three consecutive three-run innings.
McCarney and Williams were both 1-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored while Gillies was 1-for-2 with two runs scored. Waltenbury went 1-for-2 with one RBI and a run scored. Ellis was 2-for-3 and David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) was 1-for-3.
The National Junior Team prospects now have one month to prepare for the Dominican Summer League, which kicks off May 25th.
