No. 7 Baseball Canada announces U-18 National Team candidates, coaching staff, exhibition schedule

OTTAWA, Canada – Baseball Canada has announced the 27 candidates who have been invited to Team Canada’s U-18 “Junior National Team” training sessions at Disney’s state-of-the-art ESPN Wide World of Sport Complex. (See full Roster.)

Team Canada’s youth squad will return to Florida from April 11-21 to play an eight-game exhibition schedule against affiliates of Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. (See full schedule.)

Team Canada’s U-18 delegation was already in Florida last month to participate in its Alumni Week/Spring Camp in St. Petersburg.

Canada’s Men’s National Team Baseball Program is ranked No. 7 in the IBAF World Rankings and No. 4 within the Americas.

Team Canada U-18 Coaching Staff

Team Canada will be led by Head Coach and Director of National Teams, Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON).

Pitching Coach Chris Reitsma (Calgary, AB) along with Coaches Shawn Bowman (Port Moody, BC) and Mike Johnson (Sherwood Park, AB) return to Team Canada’s management team.

Former National Team players Adam Stern (Port Stanley, ON) and Chris Robinson (Dorchester, ON) have been named as guest coaches.

2014 U-18 Baseball World Cup Qualifier

Team Canada will be using the training session in Florida to prepare for the U-18 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier, which is taking place in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico from September 5-14, and allow Canada’s coaching staff crucial time to evaluate its candidates before finalizing its National Team roster.

The top four finishers in Lagos de Moreno will qualify for the 2015 IBAF U-18 World Cup that will be held at historic Koshien Stadium in Japan.

Team Canada’s Road-map to Lagos

After heading home after the 11-day Florida training session, Canada’s U-18 youth selection will head south again to the Dominican Republic in late May for matches against Dominican Summer League clubs.

In July, Canada skipper Hamilton will lead his U-18ers to Cuba in July for an exhibition series against world No. 3 Cuba’s U-18 National Team.

Team Canada U-18 Roster Highlights

The roster features 5 players (Mitchell Bigras, Gareth Morgan, Josh Naylor, Demi Orimoloye and JP Stevenson) who earned the honour to represent Canada at the 2013 IBAF U-18 World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan, where Canada finished in seventh place.

Baseball Canada contributed to this article.

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