March 23, 2018

By Adam Morissette

Baseball Canada

SARASOTA, Florida – A Baltimore Orioles prospects squad featuring Junior National Team alum Adam Hall (London, Ont.) held the Junior National Team to just three hits and scored two runs in each of the fourth and sixth innings to come away with a 5-1 win.

Box Score

Cesar Valero (Calgary, Alta.) broke up the Orioles’ no hit bid with a leadoff double in the fifth and scored the Junior National Team’s only run of the game when Dasan Brown (Oakville, Ont.) sliced a double to right field.

LaRon Smith (Spruce Grove, Alta.) singled up the middle in the eighth for the only other Junior National Team hit.

SCORING

Bottom 1 – The Orioles took advantage of a leadoff walk and used a stolen base and ground out to advance the runner to third before a two-out base hit to left scored the game’s first run.

Bottom 4 – Theo Millas (Burnaby, B.C.) took over from starter Justin Thorsteinson (Langley, B.C.) in the fourth and got into trouble hitting a batter and issuing a two-out walk before a wind aided triple to right plated two runs and the Orioles led by three.

Top 5 – The juniors broke up the perfect game bid and got on the scoreboard in the fifth as Cesar Valero led off with a double to left before Dasan Brown lined a one out, opposite field double to right.

Bottom 6 – Back-to-back singles and a one out walk loaded the bases before a fielder’s choice and error on the same play brought in two runs to put the Orioles up, 5-1.

QUICK HITS

-Hall, a three-year member of the Junior National Team (2015-2017), started at shortstop for the Orioles and went 0-for-4 but reached on an error in the third. The London, Ont., native is in his first spring training with the club after they made him a second round selection (60th overall) in last June’s MLB Draft.

-Former Junior National Team teammates Chris Shaw (2011, 2012) and Travis Seabrooke (2012, 2013) visited with coaches prior to the game. Shaw, a Winnipeg native, has been with the Orioles organization since 2014 when the club took him in the MLB Draft. Shaw, a catcher, suffered a broken hamate bone just two days ago and will undergo surgery before beginning the rehabilitation process. Seabrooke, a Peterborough, Ont., native, was a fifth-round selection of the Orioles in 2013. The left-hander spent the 2017 season with class-A Delmarva. Shaw and Seabrooke helped Canada to a silver medal at the 2012 IBAF 18U World Cup in Seoul, Korea.

-The Orioles tested catcher Noah Naylor’s (Mississauga, Ont.) behind the plate on two occasions and he responded throwing a runner out at third to end the third and gunning a runner down at second in the fifth.

-Reliever Declan Dutton (Vancouver, B.C.) entered the game in the seventh and tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Dutton worked a scoreless ninth, allowing a single and registering a strikeout, in an extra inning of work.

UP NEXT

The Junior National Team will be back at the Walter Fuller Complex tomorrow to close out the spring training camp against a prospects squad from the Tampa Bay Rays organization with the first pitch at 1 p.m. ET…RHP Griffin Hassall (Newmarket, Ont.) will start on the mound…Fans can listen to the contest by visiting radiostpete.com with coverage beginning at 12:50 p.m. E.T.