LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida- A bases loaded walk in the top of the seventh brought in the go-ahead run and the Washington Nationals prospects added two more in the eighth as they defeated the Junior National Team 5-2 at ESPN Wide World of Sports.
Reliever Brad Smith (Vancouver, BC) ran into some control problems in the seventh walking the bases loaded before issuing another free pass that gave the Nationals the lead.
A leadoff double, and a pair of errors with two out in the eighth brought in two insurance runs for the Nats as they built a late lead that was too much for the juniors to overcome.
Starter Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, MB) provided the juniors with a solid start on the mound tossing three innings giving up only one hit and two walks, while striking out two batters.
Defensive miscues on the part of the Junior National Team played a factor in the game as only two of the Nationals five runs were earned.
Nolan Bumstead (Calgary, AB) took over for Onyshko in the fourth and cruised until the sixth when he gave up a two out triple that scored on a RBI single to make it 2-0.
Bumstead’s outing saw him throw three innings giving up the one run and three hits.
The juniors fought back in the bottom half of the sixth with two runs as Robert Byckowski (Etobicoke, ON) doubled and scored on a Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) single before Charles Leblanc (Laval, QC) drove in Bigras from third on a groundout.
Offensively, the juniors banged-out seven hits with two coming off the bat of Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) who also added a stolen base that came in the second inning.
Other hits came from Tristan Clarke (Brampton, ON), JF Garon (Terrebonne, QC) and Charles Leblanc.
Up Next: The juniors will make their annual trek to Dunedin tomorrow where they will take-on the Toronto Blue Jays extended club at the Bobby Mattick Complex at 1pm ET…RHP Mike Soroka (Calgary, AB) is slated to start and throw three innings.
