Blake Swihart led Team USA 18U to its most impressive offensive outing of the summer in beating Venezuela 14-7 Tuesday at the Junior World Championships in Thunder Bay, Canada.
Team USA then topped that performance by completely dominating France 16-0 Wednesday morning to complete pool play undefeated at 5-0. Team USA will open medal round play on Friday against the No. 4 seed from Pool B, which has yet to be determined.
Swihart, an incoming senior catcher at
Cleveland (Rio Rancho, N.M.), belted his fourth home run of the summer and also had a pair of doubles to drive in four runs. The power surge helped Team USA overcome an early deficit and stay undefeated in pool play.
Brian Ragira of Martin (Arlington, Texas) hit a
home run for Team USA against France.
Photo by Kyle Dantzler
Swihart was 3-for-6 in the game against Venezuela and 2-for-4 against France. He is batting a team-best .417 during the 18-game summer series. He leads the team in home runs with four and is slugging .792.
Nicky Delmonico of
Farragut (Knoxville, Tenn.) also homered in the game, hitting his second round-tripper of the summer.
Francisco Lindor of
Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) also continues to swing a hot bat after going 3-for-5 with two runs scored.
Michael Lorenzen of
Fullerton (Fullerton, Calif.) and
Marcus Littlewood of
Pine View (St. George, Utah) both had two hits apiece.
Henry Owens of
Edison (Huntington Beach, Calif.) started on the mound for Team USA and went four and a third innings before giving way to
Ricky Jacquez of
Franklin (El Paso, Texas). Owens gave up four runs on seven hits and struck out four. Jacquez pitched two innings and got the win. Venezuela tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the fifth inning, resulting in Owens' exit. Team USA scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth and never relinquished the lead. Jacquez allowed three runs in the seventh, but Team USA had a 9-7 lead at that point.
Venezuela grabbed a 3-0 lead with a single run in the second inning and two more in the third. However, Team USA posted two runs in the bottom of the third and fourth innings to gain the lead.
Tony Wolters of
Rancho Buena Vista (Vista, Calif.) opened the scoring when he reached on a throwing error, advanced to third and came home on Littlewood's RBI single. Littlewood came home on Swihart's double down the leftfield line.
Bubba Starling of Gardner-Edgerton (Gardner, Kan.) singled to open the fourth inning and Delmonico hit a home run to right field to give Team USA its first lead, 4-3.
After Venezuela scored a run in the top of the fifth, Team USA rallied for four runs in the bottom of the inning for an 8-4 lead. Lindor got the rally going with a double to left center. Littlewood singled and stole second with Lindor scoring on the double steal.
Venezuela's pitcher then had trouble finding the plate. Starling walked on a full count and Delmonico walked on four straight pitches. Brian Ragira of Martin (Arlington, Texas) also walked on a full count to bring home Littlewood. Elvin Soto of
Xaverian (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Lorenzen were each hit by a pitch to drive in one run apiece.
Swihart homered to left field in the sixth inning and Team USA added two more runs in the seventh for an 11-7 lead. Swihart doubled home both of the runs with a shot down the leftfield line that scored Lorenzen and Wolters.
Team USA added three runs in the eighth inning. Lindor doubled to score a run and Team USA took advantage of Venezuela's continued pitching control problems with Lindor and Wolters each scoring on a wild pitch.
Against France, Team USA got off to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first and finished with a 7-run outburst in the fifth in a game that went only five innings due to a 10-run mercy rule.
Daniel Camarena of
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, Calif.) pitched five innings and gave up no runs on two hits with four strikeouts to gain the win.
Lindor continued his torrid hitting streak with a 3-for-4 effort. Lindor is batting .328 for the summer, but he is 11-for-19 at the Junior Worlds and 11-for-15 in Team USA's last four games. Lorenzen (.323 this summer), Swihart (.417) and Wolters (.360) all had two hits apiece.
Team USA hit for the home run cycle in the win. Wolters opened the game with a lead-off home run and Starling had a three-run homer in the initial frame. Ragira hit a solo shot in the third inning and Lorenzen had a two-run homer as well. McCullers blasted a grand slam as part of the seven-run fifth inning.
Besides the five home runs, Team USA also had five doubles, one each by Lindor, Swihart, Delmonico, Christian Lopes and Lorenzen.
