Maple Ridge’s Michael Stovman is having a breakout tournament with Canada’s national junior baseball squad in the Dominican Summer League.
The Langley Blaze first baseman has had multiple hits and RBIs and has played four of the team’s first five games; Monday’s game was cut short by rain. He’s batting .500, going four-for-eight and batting in three runners while scoring twice himself.
Stovman sparked a three-run seventh inning in the team’s first game, a 10-6 loss to the New York Mets prospects. After sitting out the first-half of a double header on Saturday, Stovman cashed in a runner with a single to centrefield in the fourth inning.
He then also scored a runner in Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Phillies prospects, taking one to left-field.
The team has a few more games before taking on some of the Dominican Republic’s top prospects on Thursday. Stovman is hitting .591 for the Langley Blaze in the B.C. Premier Baseball League, and is tied for the team lead with 14 RBIs in 22 at-bats.
The tournament is the last event on the junior national team calendar before the final selection camp in August for the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay.