OTTAWA-With the NCAA Division 1 baseball season beginning today south of the border, Canadian college players are starting their seasons while most of Canada is still blanketed in snow.
In fact, Junior Colleges and NAIA programs have already been playing for nearly two weeks with many Canadians appearing on rosters throughout North America.
A host of Junior National Team graduates are among those playing on college campuses across North America including ten players that helped Canada win a bronze medal last September at the COPBAE 18U Pan American Championships.
Mitch Bigras (Boston College), Nolan Bumstead (Cal State Northridge), Tristan Clarke (Eastern Oklahoma State), Luke Horanski (Creighton), Charles Leblanc (Pittsburgh), Matt Lloyd (Iowa Western), Ben Onyshko (Stetson), Zach Pop (Kentucky), Mitch Robinson (Florida International), Brad Smith (UBC) and JP Stevenson (Canisius) are the most recent junior grads to join the collegiate ranks.
Baseball America recently publicized their preseason Top 25 list and five schools that have a Canadian on their roster appear on the list.
Daniel Pinero, a sophomore shortstop, is a member of the #4 ranked Virginia Cavaliers who reached the College World Series final in 2014 where they fell to eventual champion Vanderbilt. Pinero played on the Junior National Team in 2011 where he was an All-Star at the COPABE 18U World Cup Qualifier in Colombia and returned in 2012 helping Canada to a silver medal at the IBAF 18U World Cup in Seoul.
Pinero’s teammate on both the 2011 and 2012 Junior National Teams, centerfielder Jacob Robson, is redshirt sophomore on #14 ranked Mississippi State. Just like his former teammate, Robson also reached the College World Series as a freshman when he went to Omaha with the Bulldogs in 2013.
Ryan Kellogg, the Junior National Team MVP from 2011, enters what will likely be his final campaign with #18 ranked Arizona State. Kellogg, a left-handed pitcher, has earned the reputation as one of the top starting pitchers in the Pac-12 Conference through his first two seasons throwing a no-hitter and going 11-1 in his freshman year in 2013 before following that up with an 8-3 record in 2014. Kellogg will be under the microscope all season, as he is eligible for the 2015 MLB Draft.
Canadians Jeremie Fagnan and Phil Craig-St. Louis are members of #7 ranked Texas Christian and #20 ranked Oregon, respectively.
More proof that Canadians are making their mark south of the border is shown in this article written by Bob Elliott of the Canadian Baseball Network outlining players from Canada who’ve earned NCAA preseason honours.
Among those is 2013 Junior National Team grad Cal Quantrill, a sophomore right-handed pitcher with the Stanford Cardinal, who was named to four different preseason All-American teams and USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Top 50 Watch List along with Canisius senior Connor Panas.
Elliott’s Canadian Baseball Network website does a tremendous job tracking the hundreds of Canadians playing college baseball each season, so be sure to visit the link below for a complete list.
