Ontario Blue Jays Brayden Ricketts (Brampton, Ont.) set the Canadian Premier on the way with a bases-clearing double.

October 14, 2022

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

The newly formed Canadian Premier entry registered their first-ever Jupiter win, taking down 5-Star Performance National by a score of 9-2.

The victory evened Canadian Premier’s record at 1-1 at the Perfect Game World Wood Bat championship.

Brayden Ricketts (Brampton, Ont.), of the Ontario Blue Jays, delivered a bases-clearing double to extend the lead to 5-0. RHP Matthew Donnison (Niagara Falls, Ont.), of the Great Lake Canadians, started and was followed to the mound by RHP Parker Burgess (Douro-Dummer, Ont.) of TNXL. Then, RHP Matthew Sargeant (Ancaster, Ont.), of the Ontario Blue Jays, closed it out with clean frames.

Brewers Langley Blaze beat KBC Prime 10-2 on the strength of RHP Jacob Wallace (Pincourt, Que.), who came on in relief for the Brewers. He threw 62% of his pitches for strikes. Wallace worked six innings, scattering six hits, giving up a single earned run, while striking out six.

The Rawlings National Scout Team, with six GTA players on the roster, lost 3-1 to the East Cobb Astros.

Team Steel National, with two Canucks was edged 5-4 by5Stars Baseball.

Great Lake Canadians RHP Matt Donnison (Niagara Falls, Ont.)

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Scout’s Notes

Matthew Donnison (2023, Niagara Falls, Ont.) got the start and threw well, punching three in three frames while leaving the game with the lead. Donnison is a solidly-built right-hander who is committed to Illinois State, and he ran his fastball up to 90 mph in this outing, sitting just below that and showing his usual good feel for moving the heater around the zone. He threw nearly 70% strikes in this one, continuing to flash a bat-missing slider in the low-80’s with good bite and late tilt, and he turns over a change up too with late dive. It’s a three-pitch mix with strikes and a durable, innings-eater type of frame, lining up to be a long-term weekend starting rotation member at the college level.

- Brian Sakowski

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Brayden Ricketts (2024, Brampton, Ont.) has consistently impressed me over the course of a few viewings in the last couple months, and he does damage from the left side of the plate in the middle of the Canadian Premier order. A physical left-handed hitter, Ricketts is a catcher by trade but also looks good defensively at first base, giving him at some positional versatility. The big tool here is the bat, though, to be sure. Ricketts has above-average bat speed from the left side with an understanding of leverage and a clean path, getting the barrel out front on time with the ability to do real damage. He’s hit some balls very hard this week, including a bomb of a double in Friday’s game. For schools looking for left-handed power bats in the 2024 class, Ricketts is worth a look.

- Brian Sakowski

ABC RHP Jacob Wallace (Pincourt, Que.)

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Uncommitted RHP Jacob Wallace (2024, Pincourt, Que.) jumped on the scene in relief for the Brewers Langley Blaze and turned heads immediately. With a large frame and mature muscularity, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound arm gives you the feeling that he is just beginning to realize what his arm can produce in raw stuff. He uses a very high leg lift and an aggressive upward angle with his glove side to get to release point. This helps him create fairly easy arm speed as he showed a fastball in the 86-89 range with good tilt. He also mixed in a quality curve ball with depth and two-plane break in the mid-70s range. He showed tremendous durability, going the distance on 87 pitches with 62% of those being in the strike zone. Wallace is uncommitted and his final line was six innings, scattering six hits, surrendering one earned run, three walks and punched out six in total.

- Tyler Henninger