Errors spoil valiant effort by Canadian Juniors in Spring Training

Friday, April 21, 2006

Baseball Canada’s National Junior Team prospects committed five errors that led to five un-earned runs in a 6-3 defeat to the Detroit Tigers, Friday, spoiling what was otherwise a virtually flawless outing.

After Canada’s bats came alive in a spring training win over Lake Sumter Community College, Thursday, it was its pitching that dominated against the Tigers. Mehdi Djebbar (Montréal, Qué), Sean Mattson (Scarborough, Ont.) and Cory Hall (Regina, Sask.) combined for only seven hits, three walks and one earned run allowed while striking out nine Detroit batters.

Djebbar, a late addition to the spring training camp, which is being used as part of the selection process for the Canadian National Junior team that will compete at the 2006 World Junior AAA Baseball Championships this September, threw the first four innings, giving up three hits, no earned runs and one walk while striking out four.

Mattson was on the mound for the next three frames, giving up three hits and one walk while striking out three. The 6’0” right-hander was on the mound for five of Detroit’s six runs, only one of which was earned.

For the second straight outing, Hall was outstanding, throwing the final two innings with only one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the second inning behind a throwing error and a double steal.

Jonathan Waltenbury (Bowmanville, Ont.) hit a one-out double in the bottom of the fourth and later scored on a single off the bat of Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.). Willson then advanced to third on a botched pick-off attempt and was driven in by a double by Kyle Orr (Victoria, B.C.) to tie the game, 2-2.

Detroit regained the lead on a three-run homerun in the top of the fifth to make it 5-2.

Canada’s best opportunity to get back into the game came in the second half of the fifth inning when, with one away, singles by Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.), Chad Stang (Surrey, B.C.) and David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) loaded the bases. However the fifth batter of the inning, Olivier Bertrand, (Ste-Adèle, Qué.) grounded out into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.

The two teams exchanged one more run a piece, with Canada scoring in the sixth and Detroit adding an insurance marker in the seventh.

Waltenbury and Willson were both 1-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored while Orr went 1-for-2 with one RBI to lead Canada’s offence.

Canada’s next and final spring training match-up comes against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday morning.  Game time is scheduled for 10 a.m. EST.

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