Pomeroy’s been a hit for Canada
Placentia athlete has helped host side to a perfect record so far at the world junior championship
Canada and Placentia’s Jordan Pomeroy got a well-deserved day off Wednesday at the WBSC Junior Men’s World Softball Championship in Prince Albert, Sask.
They still have one roundrobin game remaining tonight against Hong Kong, but outside of looking to remain perfect, the Canadians’ preliminary work is pretty much done having already clinched first place in the B Pool of the 13-team world junior championship by winning their first four games. The latest was an 8-5 victory over top-ranked New Zealand Tuesday night in front of a crowd of more than 5,000. Canada is the second seed. The playoff round begins Friday.
Pomeroy, the youngest player on the 17-man Canadian roster — he doesn’t turn 19 until October — scored a run and drove in another against the Kiwis. Overall, he has driven in seven runs and scored four times for Canada in its four wins. That includes a five RBI performance
— on a grand-slam homer and a solo shot — in a 7-0 shutout of Guatemala on Monday.
Listed as an infielder on the Canadian junior roster, Pomeroy has also been proving his versatility in Prince Albert by playing centre field.
It’s all part of what has been a fabulous 12 months for Pomeroy, who put together a .474 batting average with 18 hits, as well as scoring 17 runs, in 11 games with Team Newfoundland and Labrador at last August’s Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. As well, he was named Softball Newfoundland and Labrador’s junior male athlete of the year, was selected as an all-star in the Molson St. John’s intermediate fastpitch league while playing with the Chayee Bourras Selects, and was a recipient of Softball Canada’s Claude Deschamps Memorial Award, which goes to athletes in the sport who also excel academically.
Pomeroy, who recently completed his first year of studies in kinesiology at Memorial University, earned a similar honour this spring as one of two athletes who received the $5,000 Team Gushue Award as part of the Premier’s Athletics Awards.