Albertans named to Junior National Team

Congratulations to Mike Belliveau, Wyle Cunningham and Logan Seifrit on being named to the 2012 Spring Training Roster for Canada's Junior National Team (JNT).  Along with pitching coach, Chris Reitsma, these athletes will be representing Alberta on the team, in a series of exhibition games in Florida from March 6th to 13th and again from April 14th to 21st.

The Junior National Team will also  be travelling to the Dominican Republic in late May, and in the summer and fall will compete in the World Junior Championships.

For Seifrit, a pitcher from Spruce Grove, this will be his second opportunity to play with the team, as he was also on last year's spring training roster, and travelled with the team to Cuba and the Dominican.  This will be a new experience for Belliveau, a catcher from Calgary, and Cunningham, a lefthanded Red Deer pitcher.  The full roster can be seen here.

We wish the best of luck to the Alberta participants, as well as the rest of the team.

Albertans lead Junior National Team to win

Jake Hansen of Fort MacLeod threw 3 shutout innings, while Jordan Procyshen of Calgary and Brendan Hendriks of Cochrane helped the offence as the Junior National Team defeated the Washington Nationals 
extended spring team 7-4.


The team has 2 games left, tomorrow and Friday against the Tigers and Astros before returning home on the weekend.  They will then be back in action from May 18th to May 26th in the Dominican Summer League.

Many Albertans projected to be among first Canadians drafted

The Canadian Baseball Network has an updated Canadian draft list.  12 young players from Alberta are on the list, including 5 of the first 17.
Those 5 are:
#8 - Ryan Thompson - a right handed pitcher from Fort McMurray, playing at Franklin Pierce University

#10 - Adam Paulencu - also a RHP, from Spruce Grove and playing at the Vancouver Island Baseball Institute

2 Albertans pitch in JNT finale

In the Junior National Team's last game in St. Petersburg, the bats were quiet as the Netherlands team shut them out 8-0.   Jake Hansen got into the game relieving the starter in the 2nd inning and getting out of a jam, and Logan Seifrit pitched 2 innings, striking out 4 batters.

Along with Hansen of Fort MacLeod and Seifrit from Spruce Grove, the JNT also featured the following Albertans:

Pitcher Ethan Elias (Entwistle)
Infielder Brendan Hendriks (Cochrane)
Catcher Jordan Procyshen (Calgary)
Outfielder Cory Scammell (Edmonton)
Coach Chris Reitsma (Calgary)
Coach Mike Johnson (Sherwood Park)

Junior National Team plays Blue Jays

The Canada Junior National Team had an opportunity to face MLB hopefuls in a Spring Training exhibition game against the Blue Jays.  Albertans Cory Scammell and Brendan Hendricks got into the game, Hendricks enjoying some success getting the first hit of the game.  The Juniors only managed 2 hits as they were shutout 9-0.