2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
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Letters of Intent
2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

Prospects 1-100, Rob Zastryzny, 81st, Tyler O’Neill, 84th

Prospects 101-200, Cal Quantrill, 127th, Nic Pivetta, 138th

2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
2013 Canadians in the Minors 
2013 Canadians in College 
Letters of Intent
2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

By Danny Gallagher

Prior to the World War II, the Ontario town of Ajax east of Toronto was flush with men’s and women’s softball leagues.

Shortly after the war concluded, Ajax became a baseball hub, sort of shunting softball to the side a wee bit. With that long history, it was no surprise to see the Pan-American Games 2015 organizers negotiate a deal to have that town become the venue for men’s and women’s baseball and men’s and women’s softball.

“In 1947, the local juvenile baseball team won the southern Ontario championship,’’ said Ajax mayor Steve Parish, an authority of some sort on diamond history in his town. “Baseball developed very strongly after the war years.

“In 1955, Ajax became a town of 65,500 and there were a lot of teams that participated in OBA playdowns. Through the 1950s and 1960s, baseball was very strong in Ajax. Teams were pushing above their weight in a small town. To this day, there is a strong baseball presence in Ajax.

“We have a great facility in the north of Ajax for 2015,’’ Parish said. “To have the Pan-Am Games coming here is quite an accomplishment and we expect that baseball will be a hugely popular event at these games. We expect that a significant number of people will be here and that there will be huge media coverage.’’

Especially when the list of participants could include powerhouses such as the U.S., Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

One person who may be induced to help out in 2015 is Ajax’s best known baseball product, Nigel Wilson out of Ajax high school, who played a total of 22 big-league games with the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. He was signed by the Blue Jays as a free agent in 1987, was the Marlins first pick of the expansion draft and also played six seasons in Japan.

Originally, the Pan-Am Games organizers had gone to Brampton in creating a vision of a Pan-Am ballpark.

“The challenge was working with PASO, the sports rights holders out of Mexico City to include the gender equivalent of women’s baseball for the first time,’’ said Bob O’Doherty, senior vice-president, sports and venues for the Pan-Am Games 2015 committee.

“By having the two gender equivalents in the game, trying to find a location with enough diamonds was a challenge. One of Brampton’s facilities was seven or eight diamonds and showed great potential. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to reach an agreement with the city of Brampton.’’

From that point, O’Doherty and his committee went to a broader call, looking for applications from Welland in the southeast, to Oshawa in the east and other venues.

Out of that, they received letters of interest from three communities. Ajax was the winner.

“Ajax did its homework,’’ O’Doherty said. “They had a lot in their proposal, especially how baseball went way, way back to when the community was built. This will be a fantastic competition, an unique spectator experience.’’

To include a roster of a minimum five women’s baseball teams, Baseball Canada vice-president Jim Baba and the International Baseball Amateur Federation agreed that the number of teams in the long-standing men’s division would be dropped to seven from eight.

“The continental federation was willing to decrease the men’s side to accommodate the women’s teams. It wasn’t a big sacrifice from their end. We are trying to grow women’s baseball internationally so this is a great opportunity to provide leadership in that area,’’ O’Doherty said.

“Even though we will be down one men’s team, it will still be a great competition,’’ said Baba, a Canadian delegate to the IBAF. “With seven teams, one team will get a bye every day. Canada will be comprised of likely minor-league players but this is all contingent on Major League Baseball signing an agreement with COPABE (Confederaciòn Panamericana de Béisbol) to allow minor leaguers to play.

“They have always done in the past but it must be done first.’’

Canada’s managerial and coaching staff could possibly remain the same as it has been for the last few years at international competitions. That might mean Ernie Whitt back as manager with help from coaches Larry Walker and Denis Boucher.

“At some point in time, we will have to check with them to see if they want to be involved again,’’ Baba said.

2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
2013 Canadians in the Minors 
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Letters of Intent
2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

Naylor, Orimoloye pace Canucks in loss to Twins 

By Adam Morissette 

SAN PEDRO de MACORIS,  Dominican Republic — Why not play two!

Less than 48 hours after arriving in the Dominican Republic the Junior National Team has three games under its belt including a doubleheader Friday where they dropped a 6-4 decision to the rookie-class Dominican Summer League Toronto Blue Jays in the morning before earning a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in an afternoon tilt.

DSL Blue Jays 6 JNT 4

Gareth Morgan (Toronto, Ont.) 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, Ont.).

The lead was short-lived however; as the Jays pulled off a perfectly executed double steal after JNT starter Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, Ont.) 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, Sask.) and Mitchell Bigras (Sarnia, Ont.) 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, Ont.) 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, Ont.) threw a scoreless eighth inning, allowing a single, hitting a batter and recorded one strikeout.

JNT 4 DSL Brewers 3

Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) 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 Morgan scored on a sac-fly to right field which came off the bat of Lachlan Fontaine (Vancouver, BC).

Collymore made it 2-0 when he scampered home on a wild pitch and Toby Handley (Whitby, Ont.) 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, Ont.) and Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, Ont.) 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 10:30 am contest with the Kansas City Royals Dominican prospects.

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Beat Whitby 6-1 (WP-Andrew Ziedins), Richmond Hill 6-0, Cambridge 7-5, Whitby 6-4 in semi-final, Newmarket 16-15 in final (WP-Phillipe Cole, S-Ziedins)

Suzuki MVP, hit .700, Steven Balkos hit .550 James Wakutz 8 RBIs, Mark Tari 6 hits

RHP Filipek (Langley, BC) pitches complete game, C Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) hits grand slam in 9-2 win

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Blair (Ajax, Ont.) his 14th triple in DH split vs. Bloomfield

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2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
2013 Canadians in the Minors 
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2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

By Bob Elliott

Third baseman Russell McGibbon hits seventh in the Niagara County Thunder Wolves lineup.

Usually the most dangerous hitter can be found in the No. 3 spot — he always gets to hit in the first inning — or the clean-up spot.

Yet, for Niagara County Thunder Wolves the No. 7 spot is where the thunder lies.

McGibbon (Pickering, Ont.) earned MVP honours as Niagara County won the District A/Region 3 championship in Little Falls, N.Y. advancing to the NJCAA Division III World Series at Mike Carter Field in Tyler, Tex.

McGibbon was 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs in the opener an 8-3 win over the Erie Kats. Kyle Craig (Richmond, Ont.) also added a solo homer.

SS Chris Beer (Burlington, Ont.) added a single.

Next, NCCC needed 11 innings to beat Herkimer County 10-5.

Beer had a pair of hits, including a double, knocking in three runs while McGibbon has two hits and drove in a run. Craig added a single.

McGibbon was the man again with a pair of hits and two RBIs in a 5-1 win over Erie — its eighth straight win — advancing to Tyler for the third time in six years.

Craig singled and stole a base.

McGinnon hit .538 (7-for-13) with six RBIs for the tourney while Beer hit .272 (3-for-11) with two doubles and three RBIs, as Craig hit .188 (3-for-16).

Craig joined McGibbon on the all-tournament team.

So eight Canucks are off to Tyler and the nationals. In all, 35 Canadians began the season hoping to reach Texas.

A year ago Niagara County and coach Matt Clingersmith was a few outs away from winning the national championship.

On the season … McGibbon, the former Ontario Prospects infielder, batted .438 with eight doubles, five triples, two homers and 38 RBIs in 38 games. Beer hit .333 with eight doubles, two triples and 30 RBIs in 44 games. Craig hit .306 with 10 doubles, three triples, two homers and 37 RBIs in 50 games. James Audian (Montreal North, Que.) batted .136 with three RBIs in 15 games.

McGibbon was a first-team all-region selection, while Craig was named to the second team.

On the mound … Brendan Saville (Ottawa, Ont.) was 2-0 with a save and a 2.05 ERA. He walked 16 and struck out 24 in 22 innings. Cam Hall (Fort Erie, Ont.) was 2-3 with one save and a 5.40 ERA. He walked three and struck otu 13 in 15 innings. Jacob Murphy (Toronto, Ont.) had a 1.80 ERA striking out three in five innings.  Beer was 0-2 with two saves and a 7,71 ERA, walking five and striking out three in seven innings. Taylor Larkin (Morell, PEI) pitched three innings and has a 12.00 ERA, walking two and striking out two in three innings.

The other schools to qualify are the Montgomery Raptors, Century Wood Ducks, Gloucester County Road Runners, Waubonsee Chiefs, Brookhaven Bears, Nassau County and Northern Essex Knights

2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
2013 Canadians in the Minors 
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Letters of Intent
2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

By Bob Elliott 

North Iowa Trojans coach Travis Hergert gave Tim Black the ball.

And like Jack Morris in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, Black wouldn’t give it back.

Not until Black pitched North Iowa to a 3-1 win over Miles opening round of the North Plains district tournament at Glendive, Mont.

Black (Mount Hope, Ont.) pitched a two hitter, struck out 11 and walked one in the nine-inning victory while allowing an unearned run.

Morris pitched 10 scoreless as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves 1-0.

Black’s strikeout effort moved his school-record total to 116 and into second place on the single-season list with 60. He’s also tied with teammate Lucas Bakker for first when it comes to career innings with 125 2/3.

Black earned 2012 Canadian Baseball Network honourable mention honours.

Next North Iowa beat Dakota County Technical 10-2.

And then the Trojans knocked off Dakota County Tech again 4-1 to advance to the NJCAA Division II World Series in Enid, Oak.

On the season … Black was 5-3 with one save and a 2.14 ERA. He walked 23 and struck out 60 in 63 innings.

Black is one of three Canadians to make the NJCAA Division II World Series.

All in all, 43 Canadians began the season with hopes of making it to Oklahoma the final week of May.

The others

_ Austin Marcellus (Ingleside, Ont.) and J.D. Marks (Ottawa, Ont.) Lackawanna Falcons.

Marcellus singled in a run in a 9-8 first-round loss to the Cecil Seahawks, as the Falcons scored six in the bottom of the ninth in the opener of the Northeast district championship at North East, Md.

DH Marcellus was 1-for-3 with an RBI in a 10-5 win to even the series.

Lackawanna beat Cecil 2-1 in the finale.

On the season … Marks hit .261 with three doubles, a triple and 24 RBIs in 31 games. while Marcellus hit .234 with three doubles, a homer and seven RBIs in 20 games.

The other teams entered are LSU-Eunice Bengals, Scottsdale Artichokes, Grand Rapids Raiders, Murray State Racers, Brunswick Dolphins and the Madison Wolfpack.

2013 Top Canadians eligible for draft
2013 Canadians in the Minors 
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Letters of Intent
2012-13 Canadians at Canadian schools 

By Bob Elliott

Jeremy Filipek pitched Midland to a berth in the 56th annual Avista JUCO World Series this weekend in Grand Junction, Col.

RHP Filipek (Langley, BC) pitched a complete game 9-2 win over Grayson County in the NJCAA Region V tournament at QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie, Tex. He allowed two runs on eight hits and four walks. He struck out nine.

The nickname of Midland College is the Chaparrals. Yet, with a stitch here and there the name could be altered to the Midland Canucks.

Or maybe the Midland Canadians.

Consider …

C Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) homered hit a grand slam in the third inning.

Tyler Barlow (Maple Ridge, BC) singled in a run.

Jeremie Fagnan (Calgary, Alta.) singled.

And then there was Filipek … all in the regional final.

The quartet make up 10 Canadians playing for the title. In all 177 Canadian JUCO players began the season playing NJCAA Division I play in the hopes to head to Grand Junction.

Shaw, Barlow and Fagnan went hitless in the opener, a 2-1 win over Weatherford.

Barlow and Fagnan each singled, while Shaw was hitless in a 7-6 win against Howard.

Shaw had two hits, including a double, while Fagnan had two hits and Barlow singled and knocked in a run in a 7-0 win over Temple.

Barlow hit .272 (3-for-11) with two RBIs during the four games, while Shaw batted .267 (4-for-15) with four RBIs and Fagnan .235 (4-for-17) with two RBIs.

On the season … Fagnan led Midland with a .410 average in 60 games which included 19 doubles, 11 triples, six homers, 71 RBIs and an 1.161 OPS.

Shaw batted .283 in 52 games with 21 doubles, three triples, 10 homers, 63 RBIs and a 1.199 OPS.

Barlow hit .266 in 48 games with 13 doubles, one triple and 29 RBIs with a .778 OPS.

On the mound, Filipek was 6-2 in 15 games with a 3.27 ERA. He walked 25 and struck out 58 in 52 1/3 innings.

The others:

_ OF Phil Diedrick (Pickering, Ont.), RHP Andrew Simonetti (Toronto, Ont.) and RHP Jordan Romano (Mississauga, Ont.) of the Connors State Cowboys.

The fifth-ranked Cowboys overpowered Maple Woods 9-5 in their opening game of the NJCAA South Central District at Biff Thompson Field in Warner, Oak. Simonetti pitched a scoreless ninth and Deidrick singled.

Next came a stunning 11-10 victory in 10 innings over No. 1-ranked Delgado Doplhins. Deadlocked at 10-10, a second Cowboys was hit by a pitch forcing home a pinch runner for Diedrick, who also had been hit with a pitch, with the winning run. Diedrick was hit by a pitch earlier, scoring on a single giving Connors a 6-2 lead. Diedrick hit a two-run single to right centre giving Connors a 9-5 lead. He also doubled.

Simonetti worked a scoreless seventh.

Diedrick was hitless as Connors State opened with a 3-1 win over Delgado

On the season … Diedrick hit .307 with eight doubles, six homers and 29 RBIs. Romano was 4-3 in 10 starts with a 4.26 ERA, walking 44 and striking out 53 in 38 innings. Simonetti was 3-0 with two saves and a 3.52 ERA, walking six and fanning 21 in 30 2/3 innings.

_ INF Dennon Koziol (Hamilton, Ont.) Kaskaskia Blue Devils.

Few enjoyed as a productive a tournaments as Koziol did to get to the College World Series.

He singled in the opener, a 9-1 win over Rend Lake of the Region XXIV tourney at Centralia, Ill.

Then, he was 4-for-4 knocking in a pair of runs in an 11-1 win over Wabash Valley.

And in the final he was 4-for-5 with five RBIs in a 17-7 win over Wabash Valley.

Koziol was 9-for-12 (.750) in the three games.

On the season … he had 16 doubles, two triples, with 43 RBIs and a .404 average.

_ OF Byron Reichstein (St. Thomas, Ont.) Navarro Bulldogs.

Reichstein was hitless in the opener of the Region XIV tourney, a 4-0 win over the Galveston Whitecaps at Lufkin Tex.

He played a role Navarro’s win over the Paris Ponies, bunting the lead-off man to second and reaching first in the 13th as the Bulldogs scored the winner for a 4-3 win. He also singled in the 11th.

Reichstein had two hits and knocked in two runs in a 15-13 win against the San Jacinto Bulldogs. He had a two-run singled in the fifth to put Navarro up 5-4 in the fifth and singled again in the sixth.

One of his two singles came in the three-run sixth of the final to cut Alvin’s lead to 2-1 and scored the lead run as Navarro registered 4-2 win.

On the season … Reichstein had 11 doubles, five triples, three homers and 35 RBIs while batting .293 in 52 games.

_ RHP Kenton Schroter (Nanaimo BC) Cochise Apaches.

Cochise beat Northeastern 9-7, Western Nebraska 4-2 and Western Nevada 18-11 to win the NJCAA Western District championship in Sterling, Col. and earn a trip to the JUCO World Series.

On the season … Schroter was 2-1 with two saves and a 2.87 ERA. He walked seven and struck out 15 in 15 2/3 innings appearing nin nine games.

The other entries are Spartanburg Methodist Pioneers, Walters State Senators, Central Alabama Trojans, Neosho Panthers and Palm Beach State Panthers.