Tag: Blake Buckle

Ontario Blue Jays secure 2019 18U Canadian Premier Baseball League title

The Canadian Premier Baseball League has a new champion at the 18U level, with the Ontario Blue Jays coming out on top in the fourth season of the circuit to capture the trophy at the highest level.

After a slow start to the year, the Blue Jays surged through the end of the season. They won their final eight games of the CPBL regular season and tore through the playoff weekend, defeating the Ontario Astros, Great Lake Canadians and Toronto Mets to seal the championship victory.

“It’s always been a good group,” OBJ 18U manager Joe Ellison said. “They did well at 17U and moving ahead to us at 18U, they had a good fall. We started rough — I don’t think that’s a surprise to anybody — we were 2-8 to start off the year, but they bought into what we were preaching all year and by the end of it, they came out the team they were supposed to be at the beginning. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer to get going.”

The biggest factor in getting the team going — on its way to the league title — was the leadership it had and the way its players rallied around it.

“We have a lot of guys who have been in our program for five years, and some for even six years in the cases of Lukas Barry and Blake Buckle,” Ellison said. “It was guys like that who the team rallied around when we were struggling.

“Buckle had a team meeting and pulled everybody aside and got us going back in the right direction. That was one of the biggest parts of it, having those senior leadership guys to be able to say, ‘This is the way we do things, and this is not how it should be, and this is how it needs to be,’ and that’s how it got done.”

The Blue Jays earned their way to the winners’ circle after defeating the Astros and Canadians in their first two games of the postseason tournament. They then played back-to-back-to-back games against the Mets, defeating the Toronto squad in their first attempt, dropping the second, and securing the trophy with an 8-5 win.

“I couldn’t be more happy,” the 18U OBJ manager said. “A lot of hard work goes into these teams, especially at the 18U level, and the 18U program has been something that we’ve really wanted to improve on the last couple of years.

“Finally to have it win a championship and get back to where it should be is really exciting for our program, and exciting for myself, the players, and the whole coaching staff.”

As the season continues south of the border for the Blue Jays this summer, the organization couldn’t be more excited about the competition and calibre of play the CPBL provided throughout the year at the 18U level.

“It’s huge for us,” Ellison said. “The addition of metal bats this year made it a little more exciting, definitely more of an offensive league this year. It challenged our pitchers and our position players to be much better and to take care of the baseball.

“For us, our next stop is to Flint, Michigan for the Connie Mack World Series qualifier, and to go in on a high note and in a really good spot as a team, I’m excited.”

Winning the league championship was the icing on the cake for a Blue Jays’ squad that showed a no-quit attitude all year long, and was truly an entire team effort come to fruition on Sunday.

“I go back to the leadership guys, the guys who have been around the block, who I really leaned on  to help right the ship with our 18U program,” Ellison said. “They did that, and I really couldn’t be any more proud of those guys and the team as a whole. Everybody contributed something throughout the year.

“Obviously when you get off to the start we did, the wheels could have come off really easily, but the guys pulled together and everybody played a role. Even though they might not have been in the championship game on Sunday, everyone did something this year to help us win and to get to where we were to give us that opportunity.”

Eight CPBL players help Team Canada to bronze at world qualifier

With a bronze-medal victory in Chitré, Panama at the COPABE U18 Pan Am championships on Sunday, the Canadian Junior National team secured a spot in next year’s World Baseball Softball Confederation U18 Baseball World Cup, and it did so with the help of eight current or former members of the Canadian Premier Baseball League.

The circuit was represented by CPBL graduates Noah Naylor, who is currently a member of the Cleveland Indians organization after being selected 29th overall in this year’s draft; Denzel Clarke, playing at Cal State Northridge; and Daniel Carinci, a member of the University of Alabama squad. Current representatives of the league at the championships included Dasan Brown, Blake Buckle, Owen Diodati, Keegan Pulford-Thorpe, and TJ Schofield-Sam.

Ontario Blue Jays infielder Buckle was also named a tournament all-star after the final victory.

Team Canada beat Nicaragua 5-3 to take the medal and advance to next year’s tournament, and the Junior National Team program and preparations for the U18 World Cup will begin in March with the annual spring training trip in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Eleven CPBL players to represent Canada against Dominican Summer League prospects

The Canadian Junior National Team is just about set to depart for its third trip of the season, and final tour before Major League Baseball’s draft begins on June 4, and among the 30 young players invited to match up against Dominican Summer League prospects are 14 who hail from Ontario, and 11 members of Canadian Premier Baseball League teams.

Among those 11 CPBL players, four represented Team Canada at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s U18 Baseball World Cup last September right at home in Thunder Bay, with Noah Naylor representing the Ontario Blue Jays, Eric Cerantola and Griffin Hassall hailing from the Great Lake Canadians program, and Denzel Clarke from the Toronto Mets organization. Fellow league members Dasan Brown, Jaden Brown, Blake Buckle, Daniel Carinci, Owen Diodati, Keegan Pulford-Thorpe and TJ Schofield-Sam will join the quartet in the Dominican, and all 11 players are following up a spring trip with the Canadian squad to Florida in April.

On the upcoming trip, Team Canada will play 13 games in nine days against clubs in the Dominican Summer League clubs from organizations that include the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Baseball Canada’s director of national teams and manager of the junior squad Greg Hamilton leads a coaching staff that includes former national team member Chris Begg, and Robert Fatal, attending as a guest coach.

The Junior National Team program has travelled to the Caribbean baseball hotbed every year since 2011, with the trip providing young Canadian players with a truly unique baseball opportunity.

“The Dominican Summer League camp is a very important component to our Junior National Team program that will provide an invaluable experience to our players,” Hamilton said. “Players will be challenged with an intense schedule, while also dealing with elements in the Dominican Republic that they don’t face at home. The strides taken at this camp will better prepare our team for success going forward.”

In addition to providing an excellent development opportunity for players, the Dominican Summer League camp will aid in the selection process of Canada’s roster for the COPABE U18 Pan Am championships that will take place from November 23 to December 2 in Panama City, Panama. The event also serves as a qualifier for the 2019 WBSC U18 Baseball World Cup.