September 5, 2021

Baseball Canada

SARASOTA, Florida – A solid effort put forth by the Junior National Team fell short as USA benefited from three home runs to come away with a 6-2 win in game three of the Friendship Series at Ed Smith Stadium.

BOX SCORE

Starting pitcher Owen Millar (Burlington, Ont.) tossed a scoreless first inning before the US scored a pair of runs in the second, including a leadoff homer off the bat of Paxton Kling.

With the US leading 3-0 after three innings, Canada’s offence struck when Louka Daoust (Repentigny, Que.) ripped a triple to left field that brought in Robin Villeneuve (Gatineau, Que.) to score all the way from first base.

The US answered back in the home half of the inning when Elijah Green hit a two-run homer to centre off reliever Jordan Woods (Oakville, Ont.).

Woods settled in after the homer and shut the American offence down for the rest of his three-inning outing that included five strikeouts.

Canada cut into the American lead in the fifth when Cameron Chee-Aloy (Toronto, Ont.) blasted an opposite field triple to right-centre that plated Jacob Zibin (Langley, BC) and had opportunities to score in the fifth and seventh frames but left the bases loaded on both occasions while leaving a pair of runners on in the eighth.

Chase Marshall (Surrey, BC) tossed the final two innings for Canada and allowed a solo home run to Green in the eighth and finished with two strikeouts.

NOTES:

-The Junior National Team and the USA 18U National Team are meeting for a seven-game Friendship Series with games in Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Bradenton.

-The Friendship Series is the first event that Baseball Canada’s Junior National Team has held since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

-Friendship Series participants that were part of the spring training camp in 2020 include LHP Caleb Clark (Orillia, Ont.), LHP/OF Alexis Gravel (Repentigny, Que.), OF Joshua Jones (Blainville, Que.) and INF Nate Ochoa (Burlington, Ont.).

-The Junior National Team is holding daily workouts based out of Pirate City, the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

-The Junior National Team was joined by former program player and coach and current Pittsburgh Pirates Minor League Coordinator Shawn Bowman for the afternoon workout at Pirate City. Bowman coached with the JNT program from 2014-2017 and has been with the Pirates’ organization since 2019.

-Cameron Chee-Aloy’s triple extended his hitting streak to two games after he went 2-for-4 in game one of the Friendship Series while Louka Daoust extended his hit streak to two games as well.

-The Friendship Series shifts to St. Petersburg tomorrow and Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. E.T.

-All seven games of the Friendship Series are being streamed live on USA Baseball’s Facebook page: facebook.com/usabaseball.