OTTAWA-Just when you thought the 2013 baseball season was over, another high profile event is yet to be played and a Canadian player happens to be participating.
Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguer and Junior National Team alum, Michael Crouse (Port Moody, BC), is a member of the Canberra Cavalry who will be representing the Australian Baseball League (ABL) in the Asia Series November 15-20 in Taichung, Taiwan.
The six-team event features the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) champion Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions along with runner-up EDA Rhinos, the Korea Baseball Organization champion Samsung Lions, champions from Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan) the Rakuten Golden Eagles, 2012 European Cup champions Fortitudo Baseball from Bologna, Italy and Canberra.
The Cavalry qualified for the event after winning the ABL title in 2012/2013 with Canadian Marcus Knecht (Toronto, ON) on the roster.
The tournament will see two pools of three teams compete in a round-robin with the top two teams in each pool crossing over for semi-final games which will set the stage for a one-game, winner-take-all championship contest on November 20th at Intercontinental Stadium.
For Crouse, who spent the 2013 season with Dunedin in the Florida State League, international baseball is something that he says has helped him develop as a baseball player.
“It's helped me tremendously in the fact it showed me how to really compete and battle all the way through that last out,” he said of his international experience in an interview with ABL.com.
Crouse represented Canada at the 2008 IBAF 18U World Cup in Edmonton – the same year the Jays took him in the 16th round of the MLB Draft.
In 2011, the then 20 year-old wore the red and white with the Senior National Team as Canada captured the bronze medal at the IBAF World Cup in Panama before winning the gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Mexico.
Crouse and the Cavalry will begin their quest for an Asia Series title on November 16th when they take-on Taiwan’s EDA Rhinos before concluding round-robin play the following day against Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles are the very same club that defeated Scott Mathieson’s (Aldergrove, BC) Yomiuri Giants in an epic seven-game series to win Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan Series).
Upon completion of the Asia Series, Crouse will return to Canberra and the ABL season that began on October 31st.
The regular season, which runs until January 26th will be followed by a short post-season that will allow affiliated players, including Crouse, to return to Florida or Arizona in time for Spring Training.
Through seven games with the Cavalry, Crouse is hitting .269 (7/26) with seven RBI’s and two stolen bases.
For more information on the Asia Series, please visit www.asiaseries.org/2013
To stay up-to-date with the Australian Baseball League you can visit www.theabl.com.au
