Ronchi Dei Legionari, Italy- The Junior National Team banged-out fourteen hits and Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, ON) provided his team with seven solid innings on the mound as the juniors defeated the Czech Republic 12-2 in a mercy-rule shortened game.
After allowing two runs in the top of the first inning, Kellogg was dominant as he scattered four hits and walked one, while striking out seven in seven innings of work.
After a slow start the junior offence exploded for fourteen hits with five of them coming in a seven-run seventh inning.
The JNT record now sits at 2-1 for the Italian Baseball Week Tournament and they will play host Italy in the championships game tomorrow at 2:30pm ET.
Down 2-0 in the second inning the juniors tied the score with a two-run frame. Daniel Pinero (Toronto, ON) led-off the inning with a double to the gap in right-centre and after tagging up and advancing to third on a Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, MB) fly-ball, scored on a Czech error.
Jacob Robson (Windsor, ON) drove in the second run of the inning when he smacked a triple that scored Mitchell Triolo (Scarborough, ON).
Robson had a nice day offensively as he went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, scored two runs and stole two bases.
Robson was at it again in the fifth, with the score still tied, as he led the inning off with a single, stole second base and took third when the throw from the catcher sailed into centre field.
Two batters later Nathan DeSouza (Milton, ON) ripped a double to right field that scored Robson.
DeSouza had another good day at the plate today as he also went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
The juniors added two more runs in the sixth from RBI singles courtesy of Jordan Schulz (Strasbourg, SK) and Robson.
In the seventh, DeSouza singled to lead things off and Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) hit a ground-rule double which set the stage for Brett Siddall (Windsor, ON) who singled to centre bringing in both runs.
After a walk to Daniel Pinero, Jordan Schulz stepped to the plate and promptly delivered a triple to score both runs.
In only two at-bats, Schulz had two hits, scored two runs and drove in three.
Triolo, with an RBI single, and Morgan who walked with the bases loaded also had RBIs in the seven run seventh.
Notes: Tomorrow’s championship game can be followed LIVE by visiting the Italian Baseball Week Tournament website: http://www.fibs.it/it-it/play-by-play.aspx?IdSection=679.
Baseball Canada will name its Junior National Team 20-player roster that will travel to Seoul, South Korea for the IBAF 18U World Championships (August 30th-September 8th) on Monday…Canada will open the tournament on August 30th when they take on Panama at 5am ET.
For LIVE, in-game updates, please follow Baseball Canada Games on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Team_C_Updates) and while you’re at it, please follow Baseball Canada on Twitter (www.twitter.com/baseballcanada).
