Tag: Lucas Parente

Lucas Parente enjoying final experience with Junior National Team

THUNDER BAY, Ontario – Lucas Parente is having the time of his life at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s U18 World Cup on home soil in Thunder Bay.

When the 18-year-old outfielder was first added to the Canadian Junior National Team almost a year ago, his sights were set on just making the next trip with the squad, with no eye on the world championships more than 10 months later. Now, he can’t imagine dreaming of anything else.

“Everything has been amazing,” Parente said. “This is probably the best group of guys I could ask for. I love them all. And the crowd – it’s just something that I might never experience again, so I definitely want to soak it all in and enjoy it. This is my last trip as a junior. It’s different, because when I made the team last October I wasn’t really thinking about this trip – I just wanted to stay on the team after each trip. So once the Dominican trip happened [in May], I really focused on making this team.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like Greg [Hamilton, Baseball Canada’s director of national teams] always says, this is going to be one of the most special athletic things you do in your career and your life. Once, he told us how [Toronto Blue Jays outfielder] Dalton Pompey would say this is one of the coolest things he’s done, and that made me want to make it even more and I’m just glad that I did. I’m really glad I’m here.”

Parente and his Canadian teammates began their journey to the medal round at the world championships with an extra-inning heartbreaker against Chinese Taipei, before losing their second game against Korea and landing in a hole that forced them to win three straight matchups at Port Arthur Stadium in order to advance to the super round of the event.

Staving off relegation to the consolation round, in a must-win contest against Italy, Team Canada didn’t hold a lead until the ninth inning, completing an epic comeback before adding dominant wins against Australia and Nicaragua to move on.

“We didn’t expect to be in that 0-2 hole early, but Korea and Chinese Taipei are good teams, so I knew those were going to be tough games,” Parente, a native of Burlington, Ontario said. “Our intensity definitely changed after those first two games, because we knew if we lose another one, we’re out. So it was do-or-die every other game…The game against Italy was probably the most intense game I’ve ever played, and it was probably the most fun, when we won.

“The crowd here is nothing that I’ve ever experienced before. I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this before, and just having them on your side is something that definitely helps us and gets our intensity up a lot.”

When the tournament is all said and done – after Parente and the rest of the national team compete for bronze on Sunday, after beating Japan on Friday to move into the medal round – the 5-foot-9, 170-pound outfielder will move to London, Ontario, to work further with the Great Lake Canadians program that he believes got him right to where he is currently.

“I don’t think I would be playing for Team Canada if I didn’t go to GLC,” he said. “Working with Adam Stern, Chris Robinson, Adam Arnold, and all the coaches there, it’s a different level of coaching. If I didn’t go there, I wouldn’t be here, and this has been a pretty cool experience.”

Taking some additional time after high school to find a desirable opportunity for his post-secondary education, Parente wants to explore his options and make a better-informed decision before heading off to school next summer.

“I want to get better and hopefully find a school I like, a program that I want, and a nice place to live for four years,” he said. “I’m looking for a good program and good coaches, and somewhere I can develop. I also want to go somewhere that I’ll actually get a chance to play right off the bat.”

Experiencing a lot of growth over his last couple of seasons with the Canadians, Parente is hoping to keep that progression going even further as he makes baseball his primary focus for a little while, and continues to work hard and get better.

“I’ve evolved a lot since I started with them,” the young player said. “Before I was there, I had a little bit of talent, but going to GLC made me aware of how to play my game and use that ability, because I’m a smaller player and I need to play a different game. I’m not supposed to hit home runs. They taught me really how to play my game to the best of my ability.

“My game is pretty much built around speed. I use bunting, try to hit line drives, and beat out ground balls, stuff like that. That’s what I try to do. I work on my speed a lot, and my hand-eye coordination.”

Parente is one of eight current or former Canadian Premier Baseball League players at the World Cup in Thunder Bay. He is joined by GLC teammates Griffin Hassall and Eric Cerantola, Toronto Mets Denzel Clarke, Dondrae Bremner and Landon Leach, and Ontario Blue Jays Harley Gollert and Noah Naylor.

Blue Jays post-season run exciting for CPBL players

With the Blue Jays in the midst of a playoff run, and the Canadian Premier Baseball League programs winding down for the fall and heading into winter workouts, it is fitting that at least some of the attention of the circuit’s players is on Canada’s team and its presence in the postseason.

In Orlando with the Canadian Junior National Team, players from the Great Lake Canadians, Ontario Blue Jays and Toronto Mets programs offered their insights into what makes the Toronto Blue Jays so exciting as they head into the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians, what they need to do to keep going, and who impresses them most.

The biggest impact the only team north of the border has seemed to have on the young players is in the amount of excitement its winning ways over the last two seasons has brought to the entire country, making baseball more popular and hopefully getting even more kids into the game.

“I’ve been a Jays fan my whole life and to finally see them make playoffs is really exciting for me personally,” said Adam Hall, a 17-year-old Great Lake shortstop from London. “It’s also great to see the country come together and the attendance numbers for Jays games skyrocket. I’m sure that their success is inspiring kids around the country to play baseball and become more involved, which is great for Canadian baseball.”

Added Cooper Davis, 17, an outfielder with the Ontario Blue Jays and Mississauga native: “It’s been most exciting to see the fans, the city, and the country getting so crazy for this team and making baseball so popular again.”

Said Landon Leach, a right-handed Toronto Mets hurler from Pickering, also 17: “The most exciting playoff moments from the last two years are the Blue Jays players really coming together to play as a team with good chemistry. It’s really showing with the big-run games and all the perfect-moment home runs they’ve had. Another thing is the passion that the Jays have brought to the city of Toronto, and the amount of people now following the playoffs.”

Of course, the teenaged players haven’t lost sight of the big-game moments, enjoying the excitement when Jose Bautista hit his seventh-inning, bat-flipping, go-ahead home run last year in the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers, or when Edwin Encarnacion walked off the Baltimore Orioles in this season’s Wild Card game.

“The most exciting moments in the last two years are both the Bautista and [Edwin] Encarnacion home runs,” said Noah Naylor, 16-year-old catcher and infielder with the OBJ program, also from Mississauga. “Both were very exciting moments because they were altogether clutch, and both brought the crowds to their feet.”

Said Dondrae Bremner, a 17-year-old Mets middle infielder and Toronto native: “The most exciting moment to watch the Jays in playoffs over the past two years had to have been when Bautista hit that three-run home run to take the lead in Game 5 of the ALDS. Not only was it one of my favourite playoff moments, it has to be my most exciting MLB memory that I have ever witnessed.”

“The most exciting thing to watch with the Blue Jays is how clutch they are in big moments and how they can really rise up to the occasion,” added Lucas Parente, a GLC outfielder from Burlington, also 17.

While each of the Team Canada players has been impressed by what the Blue Jays have been able to do, they’ve been exceptionally motivated by a few members of the squad in particular, with a slight bias from each youngster according to the position they play.

“This may be obvious, but the player who most impresses me on the Blue Jays would have to be Josh Donaldson,” Bremner said. “Donaldson doesn’t only positively affect the team by bringing his stellar bat and his defence, but he also brings an intensity that most other players can’t. Donaldson has been a big part of the Blue Jays offence during this year, and would cause the Blue Jays to have a big hole in their offence if he wasn’t there.”

“Two players who impress me the most on the Blue Jays are [Russell] Martin and Donaldson,” added Naylor, who committed to the Texas A&M Aggies during his time in Orlando. “They both play with a lot of intensity and heart in each and every game.”

Hall shared a similar sentiment: “Josh Donaldson, because he is always so competitive and intense with what he does, and is always 100 per cent focused on whatever he is doing, no matter the situation. And Marco Estrada, because of how good he is with only two pitches, one of those being an 88 to 90 mile-per-hour fastball. He was never expected to make the big leagues but he kept working on his stuff and is now an all-star calibre player.”

Added Davis: “Kevin Pillar most impresses me because No. 1, he plays centre field like me, and No. 2, he impacts the game defensively and comes up with some huge hits at key times. Ezequiel Carrera too, another fielder who uses his speed to create offence and like Pillar, has impacted the outcome of some critical games.”

“The player who impresses me most is Ezequiel Carrera,” Parente echoed. “Because of how underrated he is, being on team with all these big-name players. He knows his role and does not try to be a superstar on that team.”

Said Leach: “Marcus Stroman, because of his passion for the game as well as his intensity during the game. He’s a very good role model for many kids and adults with his ‘Height Doesn’t Measure Heart’ trademark, that he represents well.”

And with the Championship Series set to begin at Progressive Field on Friday night, the young Canadian players believe they know what the Blue Jays need to do in order to continue their run at winning it all.

Said Bremner: “The Jays have been consistently swinging the bats well, and that’s what they need to do in order to get deeper into the post-season. With their dominant starting pitching so far and keeping their strong offense, they could have a really good chance at making it to the World Series.”

“What the Jays need to do to go further in the playoffs is keep putting up runs early in games,” Leach said. “They also need the bullpen to come in during tough situations and shut the door on the other teams to switch the momentum.”

Davis put it simply: “To make it further, they need a blessing from the baseball gods, and some more consistent offence.”

“The Jays need to hit,” added Hall. “They’re a team built around their offence, and although their starting pitching has been amazing this season, if they want a chance to make it all the way, they’ve got to swing the bats like everybody knows they can.”

Said Parente: “The Blue Jays need to stay simple with their game and not try to hit home runs every at-bat, like they did in the 10-1 win in Game 1 where they only had two home runs and all the other runs were produced by hitting line drives all over the field.”

Naylor added: “What they need to do to success in this post-season is trust in their ability and play with each other together, because the game becomes a lot easier and a lot more fun when a team plays together as a family rather then by themselves.”

Ontario Black used CPBL players to win T12 semi-final

Before Tournament 12’s championship game on Monday night, two semi-final matchups were played to determine who would head into the final. BC Orange took down Atlantic Maroon 2-1 to secure their spot just before Ontario Black – a squad featuring 17 Canadian Premier Baseball League players and two coaches from the circuit – defeated Quebec Blue 5-1 to stay alive.

The Toronto Blue Jays-hosted showcase event brought more than 160 of Canada’s top draft and college-eligible players to the big-league stage, beginning on Thursday with a combine for upwards of 60 professional scouts and college coaches and finishing with the championship, after 18 games and five days. Players from the CPBL’s Great Lake Canadians, Ontario Nationals, Ontario Blue Jays and Toronto Mets programs took part.

Ontario Black was paced by Great Lake outfielder Lucas Parente in the semi-final, who had two RBI-triples, one scoring the first run of the game and the other sparking a four-run fifth-inning rally to ensure that the fourth edition of Tournament 12 would see another new province as its winner. He added an impressive inning-ending catch in the fourth inning to help stave off Quebec.

“We were saying it all game, he’s been hitting the ball really hard,” Black coach Chris Begg said. “We’ve been watching him make great plays in centre field, he’s getting good reads off the bat right away, and we’ve been impressed with him. This tournament is the first time I’ve seen him and I really like him. He’s a gamer. He’s not a big guy, but you can see the power he shows, he hits the ball hard, and he runs well.”

Canadian Junior National Team members Adam Hall, also a shortstop for the GLC program, and Noah Naylor, an Ontario Blue Jays catcher – currently the country’s top high school draft prospects for the 2017 and 2018 classes, respectively – each drove in a run in the matchup, with third baseman and Toronto Mets infielder Daniel Carinci adding an RBI of his own. After pinch-hitting in the top of the fifth, right fielder Antonio Cruz made an incredible diving catch in the bottom half of the frame to strand the bases loaded and keep the game where it was.

“We have some good leaders on this team, with the guys playing on the [Canadian Junior] National Team,” Begg said. “Then defensively this game we tightened up from our other games. Cruz made an unbelievable play in right field, that was huge, that was the turnaround play of the game right there. If that ball gets by him, it scores a couple of runs and then this is a one or two-run game.”

“Our guys on the mound have looked good, we’ve got guys who have good arms and have been able to throw strikes. With Noah behind the plate, he gives us some stability and shuts down the running game, so we’re pretty balanced all around.”

OBJ Right-hander Noah Skirrow got the start for the Black team, and after throwing four scoreless innings in its first game on Friday he threw four frames Monday, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. GLC righties Tyler Whalen and Mitchell Stemerdink combined for the final three scoreless innings.