JNT SPRING: Bratt, Howard, Calabrese impress in juniors' loss to Phillies
Ontario Terriers catcher Tyson Gomm was behind the plate for the Junior National Team in their 6-3 loss to a team of Philadelphia Phillies prospects on Wednesday. Photo: Baseball Canada
March 11, 2020
By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada
SAINT PETERSBURG, FL--- A Philadelphia Phillies prospects squad managed by the legendary Ernie Whitt made the trek from their spring home in Clearwater to face the Junior National Team and came away with a 6-3 win.
The Phillies used eight hits and took advantage of three errors but struck out 13 times on a combined effort from Mitch Bratt (Newmarket, Ont.), Calvin Ziegler (Heidelberg, Ont.) and Drew Howard (Whitby, Ont.).
GAME BREAKDOWN
A two-base error before a passed ball and wild pitch brought in the first run of the ballgame for the Phillies who opened the scoring in the top of the first.
Starter Mitch Bratt worked a scoreless second inning with two strikeouts before the Phillies added to their lead with a run in the third. After a leadoff single to right field, a pair of stolen bases resulted in an overthrow to third base by catcher Tyson Gomm (Mississauga, Ont.) to bring in another Phillies run.
Calvin Ziegler took over on the mound for Bratt in the fourth and got into trouble early allowing a leadoff single a walk before a sac-fly to centre and a RBI single to centre plated two runs to put the Phillies up by four.
Ziegler allowed a one-out homer in the fifth before finishing his three-inning outing retiring five of six batters including three strikeouts.
Offensively, the juniors got their bats going in the fourth with David Calabrese (Maple, Ont.) and Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) connecting on singles in between an Elijha Hammill (Oakville, Ont.) walk to load the bases before Brody Alexandre (Swift Current, Sask.) reached on an error that scored both runners.
The Phillies rounded out their scoring coming on a pair of doubles in the ninth off of reliever Drew Howard while the juniors managed a run in the ninth getting Russell Young (Surrey, BC) and David Calabrese on base after a hit-by-pitch and walk before a dropped ball in left field off the bat of Max Grant (Fredericton, N.B.) allowed Young to score.
UP NEXT
The Junior National Team will make their annual trip to Dunedin tomorrow to take on a split-squad version of the Toronto Blue Jays with the first pitch set for 1:07 p.m. E.T...The game will be broadcast live on BlueJays.com with Mike Wilner and Ben Wagner bringing you all the action...It will be Burnaby, BC’s Theo Millas starting on the mound for the Junior National Team while Markham, Ontario’s Jordan Romano will toe the rubber for the Blue Jays.