International baseball will return to Thunder Bay.
Canada and the United States will play a five-game friendship series at Baseball Central (950 Baseball Diamond Driveway) beginning on Thursday, July 28th.
The two baseball organizations (USA Baseball, Baseball Canada) first unveiled the event back in May, with Thunder Bay being awarded it over Ottawa, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
“We’ve been around for 20 years so we’ve had two under-18 international events, the most recent one in 2017,” stated Nick Melchiorre, the Vice-President of the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association (TBI).
“We have also hosted warm-up events in the past so they know us. We have advocated and got funding and raised money for improvements to Baseball Central and the stadium, and they are both at International regulated levels. Not only do we have good volunteers and an organization but we have good facilities that meet the international criteria. That’s what keeps us on the radar for international events.”
The series will mark the first time that both nations have gone head to head since the Women’s Pan-American Championships in 2019.
Melchiorre noted that while there are no Northwestern Ontario players on Team Canada, there will be an all-female umpiring crew coming into Thunder Bay for the event, that will rotate with local umpires for the five games.
Scorers from our region and abroad will also be utilized.
Game times will be 7:30 p.m. (July 28th, 29th & 31st) and 1:00 p.m. (July 30th & August 1st)
📝 Schedule announced for Friendship Series in Thunder Bay 👇
📝 Voici l’horaire de la Série de l’amitié qui aura lieu à Thunder Bay 👇EN: https://t.co/i3QiLh8NvQ
FR: https://t.co/DAK0ioY8Si🇨🇦⚾️ pic.twitter.com/CsuNRd1M0V
— Baseball Canada 🇨🇦⚾️ (@baseballcanada) June 20, 2022