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The Junior National Team were still getting rid of some rust as they committed five errors on route to an 11-6 loss to the Houston Astros’ Extended Spring Training squad.

The Astros scored runs in every inning except the first as Canadian starter Kyle Lotzkar of Delta, B.C. was able to shut the Astros down in his first of two innings pitched.

Houston was able to jump out to a 7-0 lead by the fifth inning before Canada responded with some offense of their own.

The juniors scored two runs on three hits in the bottom of the fifth off of doubles from Michael Mutcheson of Morden, Manitoba and Greg Wallace of Nanaimo, B.C., and an RBI single from Jordan Wideman of Mississauga, Ontario.

The Astros would grow their lead to 9-2 in the seventh before Canada responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs on a triple by Carter Bell of Courtenay, B.C. and a sac fly by Mutcheson, cutting the lead to 9-4.

Coming to bat in the bottom half of the eighth with the score 10-4, Canada added two more runs when Kyle Fillier of Toronto, Ontario hit a two-RBI single to score Marc Bourgeois of Granby, Quebec, who reached on an error, and Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., who had doubled.

By the end, the Astros scored 11 runs on 13 hits and committed two errors, while the juniors scored six times on 11 hits with five errors.  Lawrie was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored, Bell went 2-for-4 with a triple, RBI and a run scored, and Wideman went 2-for-2 with an RBI.

Canada hits the field again tomorrow at 10 am as they take on the Atlanta Braves Extended Spring Training team.