Earlier: 2 hits for Gordon, Naylor HR .... Naylor homers against the Mets ...  Naylor goes deep, Soroka strong ... Red Sox edge Jrs. .... Naylor, Orimoloye go deep  .... Win over Brewers, loss to Blue Jays .... Soroka, Naylor pace win.

Juniors beat Tigers and Royals, MLB July 2nd prospects up next

By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada

GAME 1
Score: Canada (18U) 4 DSL Tigers 2
Location: Detroit Tigers Dominican Complex – San Pedro de Macoris, DR
Weather: 29 degrees Celsius, A few clouds

Canada 18U Starting Lineup:
1. Miles Gordon - CF

2. Royce Ando - SS

3. JD Williams – 2B

4. Josh Naylor – 1B

5. Demi Orimoloye DH

6. Andrew Yerzy - LF

7. Tristan Pompey - DH

8. Luke Van Rycheghem – C

9. Isaac Deveaux – DH

10. Brad Aldred – 3B

11. JF Garon - RF

Starting Pitcher: RHP Tyler Whitbread

HOW IT HAPPENED
- On the second pitch of the ballgame, Miles Gordon (Oakville, Ont.) drilled a home run over the right field fence to put the juniors up by one.

- Gordon was at it again in the third as he lined a single to left, moved to second base when Royce Ando (Mississauga, Ont.) beat out an infield single and scored on with two out when JD Williams (Brampton, Ont.) smoked a base hit to right.

- After throwing up zeroes for the first three innings, the Tigers got to JNT starter Tyler Whitbread (Camlachie, Ont.) in the fourth as they used back singles a wild pitch and a sac-fly to score a run. Left fielder Tristan Pompey (Milton, Ont.) made a tremendous catch on the fly ball for the second out of the inning, while Ando made a nice throw on the run getting a runner at first for the final out.

- Williams and Naylor both singled to start the seventh then with two out, Luke Van Rycheghem (Kent Bridge, Ont.) drove a single to centre with two out to score Williams from third base.

- Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, Ont.) led off the night with a double to the gap in left and later moved to third on a ground out before he scored on a wild pitch.

JNT HIGHLIGHTS
- Starter Whitbread was solid through five innings on the mound. He managed to limit the damage in the fourth to just one run as the Tigers had runners on second and third with nobody out. He ended his outing with five strikeouts.

- After Whitbread exited the game, Vincent Beauregard (Laval, Que.) took over to start the sixth and walked the first two batters he faced before striking out a batter. Kyle Ross (Maple Ridge, BC) then entered the game and walked the bases loaded before getting out of the jam with a strikeout and a fly-out to centre.

- If you were late arriving to the ballpark, you missed Gordon’s home run that left the ballpark on a hurry.

-The Tigers added a run in the bottom of the ninth as a one-out walk came around to score from third base on a two out infield single.

TEAM LEADERS
Hits: 2, Gordon (2/4), Williams (2/4), Naylor (2/4), Pompey (2/3); 1, Ando (1/3), Orimoloye (1/4), Van Rycheghem (1/4)

Runs: 2, Gordon; 1, Williams, Orimoloye

Doubles: 1, Orimoloye

Home runs: 1, Gordon

RBIs: 1, Gordon, Williams, Van Rycheghem

Strikeouts: 5, Whitbread; 2, Ross, Wark; 1, Beauregard

GAME 2
Score: Canada (18U) 3 DSL Royals 1
Location: Kansas City Royals Dominican Complex – Guerra, DR
Weather: 31 degrees Celsius, A few clouds

Canada 18U Starting Lineup:
1. Miles Gordon - CF

2. Royce Ando - SS

3. JD Williams – 2B

4. Josh Naylor – 1B

5. Demi Orimoloye – RF

6. Andrew Yerzy - C

7. Luke Van Rycheghem - DH

8. Isaac Deveaux - LF

9. Brad Aldred – 3B

10. JF Garon - DH

Starting Pitcher: RHP Nick Virdo

HOW IT HAPPENED
- The juniors opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the third as Isaac Deveaux (Montréal, Que.) led off with a triple to centre and scored on a groundout from Brad Aldred (Oshawa, Ont.). JF Garon (Terrebonne, Que.) got into the act when he doubled to right and scored two batters later on a Royce Ando base-hit to right field. Ando then stole second and scored when Josh Naylor singled up the middle.

- The Royals got on the board in the fourth when a runner scored from second base on a double to RF with one out. An error allowed the runner to reach who then moved to second base on a wild pitch prior to the run-scoring hit.

JNT HIGHLIGHTS
- JNT starter Nick Virdo (Brampton, Ont.) gave the juniors five solid innings on the mound and started the game retiring the first six batters he faced. The one run allowed was unearned. He scattered four hits and walked one batter to go along with two strikeouts.

- Mathieu Deneault-Gauthier (Candiac, Que.) was lights out during his three-inning relief appearance. He struck out four and allowed just two hits and a walk.

- RJ Freure (Burlington, Ont.) came on for save in the bottom of the ninth and walked the bases loaded before getting a fly-out to left to end the game. He struck out two.

TEAM LEADERS
Hits: 2, Orimoloye (2/4), Yerzy (2/4); 1, Ando (1/4), Naylor (1/4), Deveaux (1/4), Garon (1/3)

Runs: 1, Ando, Deveaux, Garon

Doubles: 1, Orimoloye, Garon

Triples: 1, Deveaux

RBIs: 1, Ando, Naylor, Aldred

Strikeouts: 4, Deneault-Gauthier; 2, Virdo, Freure

QUOTES
Head Coach Greg Hamilton on his team’s performance today in sweeping the doubleheader: “I thought we put together all three facets of the game today. We pitched well, threw strikes, commanded the strike zone, made people swing the bats and played very well defensively. We got timely hitting and when you do that, you win close ball games.”

Hamilton on how the week has progressed for the Junior National Team, now sporting a 7-4 win/loss record: “You’re playing doubleheaders with frequency and that’s tough. To win back-to-back like we did today and to win both the other day is hard. We have a good ball club and have played well, so overall I’m very pleased.”

Hamilton on wrapping up the Dominican Summer League Camp tomorrow against the MLB Prospects: “Tomorrow’s an energy type day and we’ll need it after a long week. (The game) is an opportunity to play against our peer group, which is very important for our program. It will be a very talented group on the other side, so it’s a chance for our guys to make a statement for Canadian baseball.”

MLB PROSPECTS UP NEXT
The juniors will wrap up the Dominican Summer League Camp Friday with the annual contest against the MLB Prospects who feature some of the top international players eligible to sign with big league clubs on or after July 2 … The prospects roster has nine players ranked on MLB.com’s Top 30 international prospects list including #1 ranked Jhailyn Ortiz, #2 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (son of former great Vladimir Guerrero), #5 Seuly Matias, #8 Gilberto Celestino, #13 Jonathan Sierra, #14 Gregory Guerrero, #16 Aramis Ademan, #20 Christian Olivo and #26 Christopher Martinez … The game will take place at Estadio Tetelo Vargas in San Pedro de Macoris with a 2:40pm ET first pitch … RHP Mike Soroka (Calgary, AB) is scheduled to start for the juniors … You can receive live updates by following @Team_C_Updates on Twitter.