BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic-The New York Yankees Dominican prospects used ten hits, including two home runs to score nine runs and held the Junior National Team’s bats in check as they went on to a 9-3 victory.
Starter JP Stevenson (Hunter River, PE) looked to be in control early facing only six hitters and striking out three of them through two innings, but the Yankees got to him in the third scoring three runs on four hits including three consecutive RBI singles to open the scoring.
Stevenson managed six strikeouts during his three-inning outing and walked one batter.
The juniors took advantage of a Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) leadoff single in the fourth and a pair of two-out walks as Luke Horanski (Dugald, MB) was hit by a pitch to score one and Darren Shred (Mississauga, ON) followed with a walk to bring in another run and cut the deficit to one.
That’s as close as they would get however, as a solo home run off reliever Zach Pop (Brampton, ON) in the fifth followed by a run scoring later in the inning after a pair of errors put the Yankees back up by three.
Pop had taken over from Stevenson in the fourth and looked good early getting three consecutive groundouts in the inning before getting out of the fifth unharmed after allowing a single and a walk.
Pop went three innings allowing one earned run, two hits and two walks, while he struck out one batter.
The Yankees weren’t done yet as in the seventh they slugged out four hits including a single, double, triple and two-run homer off reliever Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) to score four runs and put the game out of reach.
Bigras was only charged with three of the runs as the second hitter of the inning reached on an error and he came back strong in the eighth sitting the Yankees down three straight including one strikeout.
The juniors did not go down quietly scoring a run in the ninth and leaving two on before Mitch Robinson (Surrey, BC) flew out to right field to end the game.
Matt Lloyd (Okotoks, AB) had walked with two out and advanced to third on a Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) single before he scored on a wild pitch.
Mitch Robinson, with a double in the second, along with JF Garon (Terrebonne, QC) and Luke Horanski, with a single each, had the other JNT hits on the afternoon.
Up Next: The juniors face yet another doubleheader tomorrow as they will travel back to Boca Chica in the morning to take-on the DSL Mets at 10:30am ET before travelling out to Guerra in the afternoon for a 2:30pm ET tilt with the DSL Dodgers…LHP Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, MB) is scheduled to start against the Mets, while LHP Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) gets the nod against the Dodgers… You can receive live updates from both games by following @Team_C_Updates on Twitter.
Twitter: @baseballcanada / @Team_C_Updates
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