COLLIN GALLANT
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Medicine Hat had two hometown heroes playing at the Baseball Canada Cup.
Now they’ve got two all-stars.
Gas City natives Joel Lutz and Mitch Frey earned invitations to Baseball Canada’s fall junior national selection camp in Orlando, Fla following Sunday’s gold medal final of the Baseball Canada Cup.
The Medicine Hat High, Moose Monarchs and Team Alberta teammates have ran across the grass at Athletic Park countless times, but striding to the mound as part of the de facto all-star team at the national under-17 championships was one to remember.
“It’s one of the best memories,” said Lutz, who turns 17 in October.
“Being picked for Team Canada, here, is the best thing ever.
Lutz was 9-for-23 at the plate during the tournament, including a home run, and drove in five runs over seven games at the Cup — which doubles as a scouting ground for Major League Baseball and the selectors for Baseball Canada’s national junior team program.
Frey displayed the same gritty play at shortstop that’s made him a local star with the Medicine Hat Moose Monarchs of the Montana State American Legion circuit, and eventually won over selectors
“Great tournament and it’s good that we went out with a win,” said Frey, who earlier in the day helped Alberta beat Saskatchewan 7-3 in the fifth-place game.
“And it’s great to go out and represent Team Canada now.”
Lutz, Frey and Calgary’s Jordan Wong — an all-star and the tournament’s top pitcher — will join 27 other of the top players this week at Baseball Canada’s junior national team selection camp in Orlando, Fla.
“The kids that we picked are ready to play right now,” said head selector Dave Robb, who also manages the Okotoks Dawgs of the Western Major Baseball League.
“They can swing the bat, play defence and chase down balls. That was the key thing we we’re looking at. They can flat out play and they all have that ability.”
Overall the tournament showed strong pitching early on, though offence picked up in the late stages of the five-day competition.
 “The hitting didn’t pick up until the pitchers got tired,” said Dave Olsen, a member of Baseball Canada’s high performance committee.
“It was a pitchers’ tournament early in the tournament, but with the number of games that changed.”
Defensively, Ontario shortstop Max Tissenbaum’s stock is on the rise.
“That was better than the phone call I got last spring,” said Tissenbaum, 17, an emergency call up to the junior national team’s tour of the Dominican Republic last May.
“To hear my name called at a national championship; that was better than anything.”
On Sunday, he was also named the Baseball Canada Cup’s top defensive player after completing his week with two more acrobatic outs in the tournament’s gold medal final.
Québec’s Alexandre Beland was the week’s top catcher and an all-star pick.
Another all-star behind the plate, B.C.’s Brooklyn Foster, hit a towering home run over the scoreboard at Athletic Park early on during the gold-medal final against Ontario.
Almost in response, Ontario all-star outfielder Tanner Nivins hit his second homer of the tournament in fifth inning as Ontario regained a one-run lead in the back and forth contest.
Nivins was named the tournament’s top batter.
Centrefielder Andrew Ruck hit in all five on Ontario’s round robin game, going 9-for-23 in those games.
Ontario catcher Larry Balkwill was 6-for-10 in the three games leading up to the gold medal final, including three hits and the crucial RBI in a semifinal win over New Brunswick early Sunday.
Mike Washburn was the lone member of the bronze-medal winning New Brunswick team named to the all-star squad.
Overall, B.C. placed 10 players on the 26-man all-star roster.
Ontario was second with nine selections, Québec had four, Alberta three, Saskatchwan two, and New Brunswick one.

Baseball Canada Cup all-stars as announced following Sunday’s gold medal game:
B.C.
Keaton Brisco, 2B, North Vancouver
Darren Kolk, OF, Cobble Hill
Ethan Stewart, P, Campbell River
Kellin Deglan, C,Langley
Steve McKinnon, P, Duncan
Wes Darvill, SS, Langley
Brooklyn Foster, C, Langley
Jason Gibson, P, Victoria
Mike Ellis, P, Surrey
Paul Barton, P, Qualicum Beach
Ontario
Jeff Gibbs, P, Toronto
Larry Balkwill, C, Windsor
Tanner Nivins, OF, Kitchener
Jonathon Salazzo, 3B, Mississauga
Max Tissenbaum, SS, Toronto
Andrew Ruck, OF, Whitby
Trevor Barton, OF, London
Donovan Latour, P, Barrie
Jerome Wernuik, P, Toronto
Québec
Alexandre Beland, C
Jonathan Paquet, P, Ancienne Lorette
Brian Bardis, OF, St. Constant
Yan Fortin, P, Laval
Alberta
Jordan Wong, P, Calgary
Joel Lutz, 1B, Medicine Hat
Mitch Frey, SS, Medicine Hat
Manitoba
Paul Schaak, P, Plum Coullee
New Brunswick
Mike Washburn, 1B, Frederiction, N.B.
Saskatchewan
Evan Zerff, SS, Regina
Tyler McWhitter, 2B, Regina
Top defensive player
Max Tissenbaum, SS, Toronto
Top pitcher
Jordan Wong, P, Calgary
Top hitter
Tanner Nivins, OF, Kitchener
Top catcher
Alexandre Beland, C, Trois-Rivieres