Elliott: Our orchard is just fine thanks to Caissie, Cerantola, Clarke, the Naylor Brothers

March 13, 2026

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

A few years ago I asked an international scout when he was going to see Cuba play?

“Well, my friend I am not going,” he replied.

“That apple orchard has been picked clean. All the prospects have all been scooped up by big-league clubs. All they have on the island, now is a bunch of older guys hanging on the vines.”

Yeah sure, we thought, skeptically.

If he didn’t want to tell me -- all he had to say was his schedule had not been determined or the office had not given him his dates yet.

Ranked No. 20, Canada edged, No. 13-Colombia, thanks to Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) allowing one run in three innings and a two-run homer from Caissie (Burlington, Ont.). Noah Skirrow (Stoney Creek, Ont.) contributed three scoreless and Eric Cerantola (Oakville, Ont.) got the final out of the eighth with two men on when Canada led 4-2 and Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.) retired the final out. Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.) contributed a double and a triple.

Jameson Taillon, who allowed one run in 3 2/3 innings for Canada left with the lead against No. 8 Panama, but James Paxton (Ladner, B.C.) walked a batter, 1B Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) dropped a catchable ball and a ball up the middle turned disastrous as Otto Lopez threw home. Paxton cut off the ball and quickly threw the ball to the screen. C Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) had two hits.

And with the off day the grumbling started from the arm-chair quarterbacks/general managers.

“Why do they fall in love with retired guys like Paxton?”

“Why didn’t they have this guy, why didn’t they have that guy?”

My answer was that we think they love retired guys who can pitch (like Paxton) because they are not restricted by big-league club’s pitch regulations. Manager Ernie Whitt removed Paxton after the lefty threw 49 pitches, which allowed him to come back for Cuba.

“Yeah, as if THAT game will mean anything,” said another doubter.

The only two players I know they asked to play and said no were Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) who would not have made the starting outifield of Tyler O’Neill, Denzel Clarke plus Cassie. The other one was reliever Lucas Wepf (Georgetown, Ont.) in camp with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.), Logan Allen and Brock Dykxhoorn (Goderich, Ont.) each worked three innings as Canada edged No. 7 Puerto Rico. Caissie doubled to left and Toro singled him home. Clarke and Edouard Julien (Quebec, Que.) hit two-out singles in the third. Josh Naylor was then hit by a pitch and the reliever issued bases-loaded walks to O’Neill and Tyler Black (Stouffville, Ont.)

Facing No. 10 Cuba which has caused Canada so much international heartbreak (1999 Pan Am semi finals, 3-2 loss, 2008 Beijing, 7-6 loss, 2004 Athens, 5-2 loss in pool play and the 2004 Athens, 8-5 loss the in semis when Kevin Nicholson’s pinch hit, three-run home run attempt was caught at the wall). We kept waiting for the hammer to fall. Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) prevented that.

Toro singled home Caissie, who had doubled. Bo Naylor doubled to right to score Matt Davidson. Clarke then reached on catcher’s interference and stole second. Lopez singled to left scoring Naylor and Clarke making it 5-1. In the eighth inning, Lopez walked and scored on Josh Naylor’s flare. Canada collected their final run in the ninth when Toro doubled and Caissie singled him home. Paxton fanned six in 2 2/3 scoreless to register a hold as Canada won 7-2.

Canada has now beaten Cuba six straight times 2015 Pan Am, 2015, Premier12, 2019 Pan Am, 2019 Premier12, 2021 Olympic Qualification and the 2026 WBC.

Am unsure whether it was the first, second or third fly catchable fly ball that I thought about the orchard analogy.

And then I thought how would our current apple orchard would look.

Let’s take a walk with mythical walk with farmer Jim ...

“Well, you know there are more than 7,500 varieties and we don’t have them all here ... this is the orchard where Red Delicious come from ... I remember Owen Caissie and Eric Cerantonola as young sprouts.”

“These are Granny Smith. Unique for baking and unique in the fact Tyler Black combined both speed and hitting ability. I read his draft year he was the sixth hitter selected.”

“This field is where we grow Golden Delicious ... Josh, Bo and Myles Naylor came from here ... Denzel Clarke too.”

“See that set of railroad tracks over there? I once saw James Paxton throw an apple throw an open door of the a westbound train and it exited the door of eastbound freight.”