GOLD COAST, Australia-Chris Thibideau (Dartmouth, NS) and Jake Lumley (Windsor, ON) each had RBI singles in a two-run seventh inning and Brodie Harkness (Bowmanville, ON) shut the door in the eighth as the Junior National Team hung on to defeat Australia 3-2.
The game was made official after eight innings as both teams used the ninth to practice the International Baseball Federation tie-break rule (inning begins with runners on first and second base) in preparation for the upcoming IBAF 18U World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan August 30-September 30.
Both runs in the seventh came with two out as Malik Collymore (Mississauga, ON) walked, stole second and scored on Thibideau’s single to left field and Morgan Loftstrom (Kelowna, BC) scored the go ahead run on Lumley’s single that got by the second baseman.
JNT starter Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) gave his team five solid innings of work on the mound striking out eight and was able to get out of trouble on three separate occasions.
After giving up a run on a bases load walk, Quantrill started a 1-2-3 double-play to end the first inning and in the fifth with a runner on third and nobody out, he got a groundout and recorded two strikeouts to keep the Aussies off the scoreboard.
Trailing 2-0, the juniors pulled to within one run of the lead in the bottom of the second when Owen Spiwak’s two-out double scored Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) from first base to get the juniors on the board.
Spiwak drilled the second pitch he saw to the gap in left-centre and the hustling Morgan was able to score easily on the play.
Spiwak singled later in the game to go 2-for-3 as part of the JNT’s seven-hit attack.
Brodie Harkness came out of the bullpen for the sixth inning and gave-up a double to left field to the first batter he faced before getting a groundout and two strikeouts to preserve the lead.
After a scoreless seventh, Harkness managed to get out of trouble in the eighth getting a strikeout and groundout to Jake Lumley at third base with runners on second and third.
Harkness’ three inning outing saw him give-up only two hits and one walk, while striking out four.
Both sides were guilt of leaving runners on base as Australia left ten, while the juniors stranded 11 runners throughout the contest.
Notes: The juniors will take-on Australia again tomorrow at 12:30pm AEST (10:30pm ET on 08/20) with Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON) scheduled to start… Live scoring for all games will be available at: www.mlbaap.baseball.com.au.
You can follow the Junior National Team during exhibition play and at the IBAF 18U World Cup by visiting Baseball.ca or by following @baseballcanada on Twitter.
