San Pedro de Macoris, DR-Why not play two! Less than 48 hours after arriving in the Dominican Republic the Junior National Team has three games under their belt including a doubleheader today where they dropped a 6-4 decision to the Toronto Blue Jays this morning before earning a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in an afternoon tilt.
DSL Blue Jays 6 JNT 4
Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) hit a solo home run deep over the wall in left field in the top of the fourth to bring the juniors to within one run of the lead, but the Jays hung on for a 6-4 win.
“I was able to get to get a good pitch to hit and ended up putting a good swing on it,” said Morgan of the blast.
The juniors opened the scoring in the top of the first as Chris Thibedeau (Dartmouth, NS) led off the game with a double and scored on a single from Malik Collymore (Mississauga, ON).
The lead was short-lived however; as the Jays pulled off a perfectly executed double steal after JNT starter Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON) gave up a walk followed by a single.
Seabrooke struggled with his control in the second issuing three walks and a single and the Jays were quickly in front 2-1.
The damage could’ve been a lot worse, but Seabrooke showed composure striking out two batters in a row to end the inning with the bases loaded.
Back-to-back doubles in the third from Jordan Schulz (Strasbourg, SK) and Mitchell Bigras (Sarnia, ON) tied the score briefly before the Jays added two more runs in the home half of the inning to go up by a pair.
After Morgan’s solo shot in the fourth, Seabrooke shut down the Jays in the bottom of the inning to end his day on the mound.
Kurtis Kostuk (Abbotsford, BC) came on for the fifth and was impressive through two frames limiting the Jays to only one hit and striking out three batters.
Kostuk got into a bit of trouble in the sixth as he walked two batters with two out, but managed a force out at second base to get out of the inning.
The juniors took advantage of a couple of Jays errors in the seventh to tie the score when Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) ended up on second base after an error, advanced to third on a balk and scored on the Jays second error of the inning.
The Jays went ahead for good in the bottom of the seventh as Kostuk gave up a lead-off double that scored on an RBI single before a single, wild pitch and passed ball brought in the second run of the inning.
Sean Ratcliffe (Ajax, ON) threw a scoreless eighth inning, allowing a single, hitting a batter and recorded one strikeout.
JNT 4 DSL Brewers 3
Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) gave his team five solid innings on the mound and the juniors struck for four runs in the top of the first, and hung-on for a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers Dominican prospects.
The only blemish for Quantrill came in the second inning when he allowed a single followed by a two-run homer to centre field.
“I hung a slider and he got all of it,” said Quantrill after his outing. “But I think I settled in nicely after that.”
Settle in nicely he did as Quantrill went onto retire 11 batters in a row to finish his five inning outing.
Quantrill’s outing included six strikeouts as he did not allow a walk in throwing 60 pitches.
The juniors struck for four runs in the top of the first which began when Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) scored on a sac-fly to right field which came off the bat of Lachlan Fontaine (Vancouver, BC).
Malik Collymore (Mississauga, ON) made it 2-0 when he scampered home on a wild pitch and Toby Handley (Whitby, ON) delivered a two-out, two-run double to right field to give his team all the runs they would need.
The double came with the bases loaded as Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, ON) and Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) scored on the play.
Connor Noble (Vancouver, BC) took over for Quantrill in the sixth and was effective in keeping the Brewers from tying the game.
Noble struck out two in a tidy sixth inning before a run scored in the seventh to bring the Brewers within one.
The Brewers threatened to tie the score in the eighth after two walks gave them runners on first a second with nobody out, but a failed bunt for a pop-out at first, infield fly and strikeout from Noble ended the inning.
Noble managed three strikeouts in three innings.
Morgan Lofstrom (Kelowna, BC) came on for the save after catching in the morning game and gave-up a one-out double before inducing a ground-out, hitting a batter and getting a fly-out to right field to end the game.
Notes: The juniors will travel to Boca Chica tomorrow morning for a 10:30am contest with the Kansas City Royals Dominican prospects.
