Ronchi Dei Legionari, Italy- The Junior National Team scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth and held off the USA Selects in the top of the ninth to earn a 10-9 victory and even their record at 1-1 in the Italian Baseball Week Tournament.
The juniors had built an 8-2 lead after five innings but saw the USA Selects score seven unanswered runs to take a 9-8 lead.
Nathan DeSouza (Milton, ON) nailed a double off the right field wall to lead-off the eighth and later scored the tying run when a failed pick-off throw sailed past first base and into foul territory.
With Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) standing on third base, Daniel Pinero (Toronto, ON) fisted a ball into right field that brought in the go-ahead run.
In the ninth Logan Seifrit (Spruce Grove, AB) walked a batter with two out, but got a force out at second base on a ground ball to Pinero at shortstop to end the game.
The six-run sixth inning for the USA Selects came with only one base-hit during the inning as Michael Clouthier (Guelph, ON) and Christian Botnick (Brampton, ON) combined to hit four batters and walk another four batters.
Seifrit gave-up the run to put the USA Selects in front by one in the eight when he unleashed a wild pitch with a runner on third and two outs.
Myles Vincent (Corner Brook, NL) started for the juniors and gave his team three scoreless innings on the mound giving up only three hits and a walk, while striking out three.
The juniors gave Vincent an early lead as they scored three times in the bottom of the first with RBI singles coming from Josh Naylor and Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, MB), while Brett Siddall (Windsor, ON) added a sac-fly that scored Jamar Burnette (Toronto, ON).
Kyle Hann (Oakville, ON) came up with a big hit in the bottom of the second as he drilled a triple over the centre fielder’s head that scored two runs to put the juniors up by five.
Brett Siddall picked up his second sac-fly for an RBI in as many innings in the second and Jamar Burnette hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded in the third that scored Chris Shaw.
In addition to Vincent’s three strikeouts, Clouthier had four, Botnick had two and Seifrit added one.
Offensively, Kyle Hann paced the juniors with a 2-for-4 day at the plate with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Notes: The juniors will face the Czech Republic tomorrow at 10am ET in their final round-robin game of the Italian Baseball Week Tournament … The four team, round-robin tournament will see the top two records playing for gold and bottom two records playing for bronze on Sunday…Following the tournament, the Junior National Team will name its 20-player roster that will travel to Seoul, South Korea for the IBAF 18U World Championships August 30th-September8th…Canada will open the tournament on August 30th when they take on Panama at 5am ET.
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