August 23, 2019

By Adam Morissette

Baseball Canada

LISMORE, Australia – The Junior National Team is in Australia preparing for the upcoming World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U18 Baseball World Cup with a six-game series against the Australian U18 side.

Twenty-two athletes are vying for one of 20 available roster spots for the U18 world cup that will take place from August 30 – September 8 in Gijang, South Korea.

GAME 1 – Canada 12, Australia 6 (Box Score & Play-by-Play)

The Junior National Team belted out 13 hits en route to a 12-6 win over Australia to open the series with a victory.

Trailing 1-0 after three innings, the juniors struck for two runs in the fourth and proceeded to score runs in each of the next six frames including a four-run eighth inning.

Micah McDowell (Coldbrook, NS) paced the offence with a three hit game and three stolen bases while Dasan Brown (Oakville, Ont.) and Elijha Hammill (Oakville, Ont.) picked up two hits apiece as nine different players recorded hits. Hammill added two RBI with Brown, Owen Diodati (Niagara Falls, Ont.) and TJ Schofield-Sam (Brampton, Ont.) each driving in one run.

On the mound, starting pitcher Theo Millas (Burnaby, BC) worked two scoreless innings scattering four hits with two strikeouts while Evan O’Toole (Bridgewater, N.S.) fanned three over two innings of relief work. Antoine Jean (Montréal, Que.), Calvin Ziegler (Heidelberg, ON) and Mitch Bratt (Newmarket, Ont.) also saw work on the mound.

GAME 2 – Canada 1, Australia 4 (Box Score & Play-by-Play)

After dropping game one of the series, Australia used nine hits and took advantage of three Canada errors to come away with a 4-1 victory.

A fielding error by Austin Gomm (Mississauga, Ont.) on the first batter of the ballgame, followed by a triple off starting pitcher Connor O’Halloran (Mississauga, Ont.) gave Australia an early lead before Canada had their first turn at the plate.

O’Halloran was literally unhittable over the remainder of his three-inning outing and finished with three strikeouts.

Australia added to their lead with runs in each of the fifth and sixth frames coming with reliever Carter Morris (Vernon, BC) on the mound before Canada scored their lone run of the game in the bottom of the sixth when Owen Diodati (Niagara Falls, Ont.) plated Elijha Hammill (Oakville, Ont.) with a sacrifice fly to centre field.

Canada was limited to just four hits on the afternoon with Cesar Valero (Calgary, Alta.), Joshua Walker (Victoria, BC) Raphaël Pelletier (Montréal, Que.) and Micah McDowell (Coldbrook, N.S.) picking up base hits.

Eli Saul (Vancouver, BC) was on the mound for an unearned run in the ninth and had five strikeouts over three innings of work.

GAME 3 – August 24th 5AM ET

GAME 4 – August 24th 9PM ET

GAME 5 – August 25th 12AM ET

GAME 6 – August 25th 8PM ET

Baseball Australia is providing live scoring for all games of the series that can be accessed here…For up-to-date information on the Junior National Team, please follow @BaseballCANJNT on Twitter.