Long ball leads USA to victory over JNT
Great Lake Canadians LHP Caleb Clark (Orillia, Ont.) struck out five and didn’t allow an earned run in three innings for the Junior National Team on Saturday. Photo: Christian Bender/Baseball Canada
September 4, 2021
Baseball Canada
SARASOTA, Florida – A second-inning grand slam highlighted a six-run inning for Team USA as they went on to defeat the Junior National Team 10-2 in game two of the Friendship Series at Ed Smith Stadium.
Canada had jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning before the Americans scored six times with two out in the second with the big blow coming in the form of a Termarr Johnson grand slam.
Turner Spoljaric (Lisle, Ont.) started on the mound for Canada working a 1-2-3 frame in the first with one strikeout and managed to retire the first two batters in the second before the US got their first runner aboard on a single to centre.
Caleb Clark (Orillia, Ont.) took over for Spoljaric in the fourth and struck out the first two batters he faced before the US used a two-out long ball to their advantage for the second time in the game leading to a 10-2 lead after four innings.
Clark settled in after the homer retiring the next seven batters he faced and finished his three-inning outing with five strikeouts.
A Jacob Miller (Oshawa, Ont.) double in the bottom of the first cashed in Tyrus Hall (Victoria, BC) with the game’s first run before Max Hartman (St. Albert, Alta.) scampered home from third on a wild pitch to give Canada an early two-run advantage in what turned out to be the only scoring plays for the Canadians in the ballgame.
Matt Grabmann (Dartmouth, N.S.) took over on the mound to start the seventh and worked three scoreless innings allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out three batters.
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.
-With two hits in game one, Jacob Miller extended his streak to two games early in the Friendship Series after he doubled home a run in the first inning.
-Both squads will be back at it for the game of the series tomorrow at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota with the first pitch set for 6 p.m. E.T.
-All seven games of the Friendship Series are being streamed live on USA Baseball’s Facebook page: facebook.com/usabaseball.