Clearwater, FL-The Philadelphia Phillies minor league prospects put the finishing touches on a two game sweep of the Junior National Team with an 11-1 victory at the Carpenter Complex, the home of Phillies Spring Training.
The Phillies opened the scoring in the home half of the first inning with two runs against JNT starter Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON). Seabrooke managed two quick outs on a strikeout and ground out before an error, single and double plated two runs.
Seabrooke allowed another run in the second frame off two hits and a stolen base before tossing a scoreless third inning with one strikeout, his second of the game.
The JNT offence struggled against Phillies pitching who only allowed four singles during the game.
In the fourth inning, Damion Smith (Windsor, ON) drew a lead-off walk, Jesse Hodges (Victoria, BC) singled and after a strikeout, Brett Siddall (Windsor, ON) singled to right-field to score Smith.
After Siddall’s single, the Phillies made a pitching change which led to a fly-out and strikeout to end the threat.
Fernando Fernandez (Montréal, QC) took the mound in the bottom of the fourth and got out of a jam with runners on first and second by recording a key strikeout to end the inning.
Fernandez tossed three innings and gave up two runs on five hits and one walk, while striking out three batters.
With the score 5-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies put the game out of reach with a five-run outburst that was highlighted by a three-run home run to left field off new JNT pitcher Blake Weston (Oakville, ON).
Weston tossed two innings and allowed six runs on five hits and also struck out two batters.
The Junior National Team will now focus their attention on ‘Canada Day’ tomorrow at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg as they welcome the Toronto Blue Jays led by Jose Bautista, Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC), Adam Lind and JP Arencibia for a 1:05pm ET game.
This is the second annual ‘Canada Day’ game in St. Petersburg and promises to be a great day as the JNT faces Canada’s only Major League Baseball team.
Along with Lawrie, other Canadians expected to make the trip over from the Blue Jays Spring Training home in Dunedin are Dalton Pompey (Oakville, ON), Trystan Magnuson (Vancouver, BC) and recent Pan Am Games Gold Medalists Michael Crouse (Port Moody, BC), Marcus Knecht (Toronto, ON) and Scott Richmond (Vancouver, BC).
Notes: Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, ON) is scheduled to start tomorrow against the Blue Jays, while Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON), son of former Blue Jay Paul Quantrill, is slated to throw two innings…Tomorrow’s game can be heard LIVE on-line by clicking HERE…Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, QC), Chris Kissock (Trail, BC) and Gold Medal Manager Ernie Whitt all made a visit to the JNT dugout prior to today’s game…Aumont is in big-league camp with the Phillies, Kissock is in minor league camp and Whitt is the Phillies Roving Minor League Catching Instructor.
