GUERRA, DR-Trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh, the Seattle Mariners Dominican prospects scored six runs to take a one-run lead and went onto a 6-5 victory over the Junior National Team.
Reliever Kurtis Kostuk (Abbotsford, BC) gave-up three consecutive singles to open the inning that brought in one run and a double followed to bring the Mariners within three.
After a walk loaded the bases, a fielder’s choice led to another run crossing the plate before a double made the score 5-4.
The finishing touch on the comeback came with two-out and two-on as a double to the gap in left brought in both runners and Mariners were all of a sudden in the lead.
Up until the bottom of the seventh, the juniors had built a five-run lead thanks in part to a two-run home run from Lachlan Fontaine (Vancouver, BC), a two-run single from JD Osborne (Whitby, ON) and six shutout innings from Luke Manuel (Surrey, BC) and Connor Noble (Vancouver, BC).
Manuel started and threw three innings of one-hit ball allowing only a lead-off double in the second, while fanning four batters.
JD Osborne led-off the third with a sharp single to right and with one-out Lachlan Fontaine came to the plate and delivered a home run to right field that landed in the trees beyond the fence.
The homer was the Junior National Team’s sixth through eight games in the Dominican Summer League.
The juniors added to their lead in the fourth after a couple of errors and a walk loaded the bases for Morgan Loftsrom (Kelowna, BC) who reached on a fielder’s choice that allowed Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) to score from third.
Connor Noble took over for Manuel in the fourth and was effective through two innings allowing a walk and single, while getting three fly-outs, two strikeouts and a groundout.
The juniors gave Noble a five run cushion the top of the sixth when JD Osborne came through with a two-out single to bring in Josh Naylor and Toby Handley (Whitby, ON) who had each hit singles earlier in the frame.
Noble was very efficient in the sixth getting two groundouts to second and a groundout to short to end his three inning outing.
After the Mariners took the lead in the seventh, Kostuk allowed a one-out walk in the eight before getting a force-out at second and a pop-out to third to end the inning.
The Junior National Teams record through eight games in the DSL now sits at 4-4 with two games to play tomorrow.
The juniors will travel to Boca Chica tomorrow morning for a contest with the New York Mets Dominican prospects at 10am where Kurtis Horne (Sooke, BC) is scheduled to start on the mound.
After the morning game, the juniors will load the bus and travel to Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo where they will take-on the top MLB prospects that the Dominican Republic has to offer.
Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) is slated to start the 7pm game.
