NATIONALS THUMP
JNT AT SPRING CAMP

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – The Junior National Team had no answers for the Washington Nationals offence as the extended spring team scored in seven of the nine innings on route to an easy 13-1 victory at the Disney Spring Training Camp.

The Nationals got it started in the second inning by scoring three runs, one earned against JNT starter Brian Smith (Pickering, ON).  A walk followed by a double brought in the first run, while a pair of throwing errors allowed two more runs to score giving Washington a 3-0 lead.

The lead grew to four in the third inning when a walk followed by a pair of singles drove in the fourth run for the Nationals.

Power was on display in the fourth inning as the Nationals would hit back-to-back home runs off of reliever Levi Westerlund (Oyen, AB), who had retired the first batter he faced before giving up the two long balls. The score is now 6-0 for Washington.

The Nationals kept pounding away in the fifth inning by bringing in three more runs on three hits and a walk for a 9-0 lead.

It became a double digit lead in the sixth. With Tanner Spencer (Craik, SK) now on the mound, he allowed a pair of walks then uncorked a wild pitch allowing both runners to move into scoring position and a sacrifice fly drove in the Nationals tenth run of the game.

The JNT’s fourth error of the game, followed by a double and a pair of walks given up by Spencer in the seventh inning gave the Nationals an 11 run lead.

The Canadians broke through on the score sheet in the bottom of the seventh when Ryan Clarke (Mississauga, ON) hit a leadoff single and came around to score on a Jalen Harris (Toronto, ON) ground out to make it 11-1.

The Nationals would strike their final blow in the eighth with a two-run home run off of Ryan Johnson (Winnipeg, MB) to take a 13-1 lead.

Next up for the Junior National Team is a matchup with the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, April 22 at 1 PM at Champion Stadium at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Jesen Therrien (Montreal, QC) is scheduled to start for the Canadians.

For media interested in more information on the above press release, please contact André Cormier, Manager of Media & Public Relations, at 613-748-5606, ext. 221 or via e-mail at media@baseball.ca.

Baseball Canada – 21 April 2010