by Baseball Canada
Monday, August 27, 2012
OTTAWA- Baseball Canada announced today the 20-player Junior National Team roster that will represent Canada at the IBAF 18U Baseball World Championships August 30th-Septmember 8th in Seoul, South Korea.
Players, coaches and staff will travel to Seoul today and hold a team practice on August 29th prior to opening the 12-team tournament on August 30th against Panama at 5am ET at Mokdong Stadium.
Canada will compete in Pool B where they will play a round-robin schedule against Panama, Japan, Italy, Chinese Taipei and the Czech Republic.
Pool A consists of host South Korea, Australia, Colombia, Netherlands, USA and Venezuela.
At the conclusion of the first round, the top three records in each pool will play each other in crossover games. The teams will be seeded one to six with their first round record against teams also in round two counting in the standings.
Once round two is completed the top two seeds will play for gold, while third and fourth place will play for bronze and the fifth and sixth seeds will meet in the fifth place match-up.
The selection process for the Junior National Team began in March in St. Petersburg, Florida where the club held a 10-day camp which included daily practices and exhibition games.
Subsequent camps were held in Orlando, Florida in April and the Dominican Republic in May while, the team’s final selection camp was recently held in Toronto and Ronchi dei Legionari, Italy.
The Junior National Team roster features:
-Nine players that were selected in June’s MLB First Year Player Draft (Botnick-Cubs; Dawe-Yankees; DeSouza-Blue Jays; Dykxhoorn-Reds; Kellogg-Blue Jays; Marks-Mets; Robson-Padres; Seifrit-Mariners; Shaw-Brewers).
-Three of the drafted players have since signed professional contracts (Dawe, DeSouza, Seifrit).
-Nine players were members of the 2011 JNT that finished in 2nd place at the Americas 18U Qualification Tournament in Cartagena, Colombia (Dawe, Hann, Kellogg, Morgan, Pinero, Quantrill, Robson, Shaw, Siddall)
-The coaching staff is led by Head Coach Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON), Pitching Coach Chris Reitsma (Calgary, AB), Third Base Coach Hyung Cho (Scarborough, ON) and First Base Coach Corey Eckstein (Abbotsford, BC).
Canada is coming off a fourth place finish at the 2010 IBAF 18U World Championship that was held in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Canada’s last medal at an IBAF 18U World Championship came in 2006 when a club led by Brett Lawrie defeated Mexico 6-2 to claim the bronze medal.
