March 20, 2016

JNT Spring: Juniors blanked by Rays in spring finale

By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – The Canadian Junior National Team dropped their final game of the spring training camp, 16-0, to a prospects squad from the Tampa Bay Rays organization. The Rays outhit the juniors 14-4 including nine extra base hits with one of them a two-run homer in the seventh. The juniors committed five errors on defence and walked ten batters.

GAME INFORMATION
Event: Spring Training
Score: Tampa Bay Rays 16 Canada (U18) 0  
Location: Walter Fuller Complex – St. Petersburg, Fla.

Canada U18 Starting Lineup:
1. Cooper Davis – CF
2. Adam Hall – SS
3. Clayton Keyes - LF
4. Andrew Yerzy – C
5. Brad Aldred – 3B
6. Noah Naylor - DH
7. Jason Willow – 2B
8. Tyler Duncan - RF
9. Dondrae Bremner – DH
10. Luke Van Rycheghem - DH
11. Soren Graversen – 1B

Starting Pitcher: LHP Jaden Griffin

HOW IT HAPPENED
- After a scoreless first inning, the Rays used a pair of doubles in the second inning to open the scoring.

- The floodgates opened in the third as the Rays struck for six runs using four hits, two walks and two errors to go up by seven, and added four more in the fourth after two hits, including an RBI double, three walks and two errors.

- After adding singles in the fifth and sixth frames, the Rays added three runs in the seventh with the big blow coming in the form of a two run homer. The juniors kept the Rays off the scoreboard in the eighth for the first time since the first inning and also blanked them in the ninth inning.

JNT HIGHLIGHTS
- JNT starter Jaden Griffin (Lower Sackville, NS) got a pair of groundouts and a strikeout as a part of a perfect first inning on the mound in his only inning of work.

- Relievers Josh Burgmann (Nanaimo, BC) and Sam Turcotte (Toronto, Ont.) also put up scoreless frames.

- Carter Loewen (Abbotsford, BC) entered the game in the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out and managed to get out of the inning unscathed as he got a fly out, strikeout and groundout to end the inning.

- Cooper Davis (Mississauga, Ontt.) and Luke Van Rycheghem (Kent Bridge, Ont.) each had doubles, while Adam Hall (London, Ont.) and Robbie Holmes (New Sarepta, Alta.) had singles to account for the Junior National Team’s four hits on the afternoon.

TEAM LEADERS
Hits: 1, Davis (1/3), Hall (1/3), Van Rycheghem (1/2), Holmes (1/2)
Strikeouts: 1, Griffin, Loewen

UP NEXT
Players, coaches and staff will return home tomorrow…The Junior National Team program will resume in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. at ESPN Wide World of Sports with the annual Extended Spring Training Camp from April 15-23 … The annual Dominican Summer League camp will take place in late May before the squad travels to Cuba for an exhibition series against the Cuban U-18 National Team in early July.