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His spot on USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team roster already secured, Casey Opitz will head into the upcoming international series on a high note.
The Arkansas catcher came off the bench in the sixth inning of Team USA’s eight-inning scrimmage against the Coastal Plains League Select team and homered to cap a 4-0 victory Monday night in Cary, N.C.
That was Opitz’s lone at bat in that game and it followed a 2-for-10 showing in a series of four Red-Blue intrasquad scrimmages that served as a tryout for 28 collegiate players vying for the final 16 roster spots.
Among those trying out were the Razorbacks’ Heston Kjerstad and Casey Martin.
Kjerstad made the team despite going 0 for 3 with a strikeout Monday. In the four intrasquad scrimmages, he went 3 for 11 and hit the lone home run by either side. He was the starting right fielder in the first three scrimmages, moved to left field for the fourth and then started as the designated hitter against the CPL Select.
Martin failed to make the final roster after going 2 for 11 in the intrasquad scrimmages. Both of his hits were doubles and he also had a pair of RBIs, three walks and a stolen base while starting three games in center field and one at third base. He did not play in Monday’s game.
Now Martin will head to the Cap Cod Baseball League, where he'll play with the Bourne Braves.
With Opitz and Kjerstad on the final roster, Arkansas has now had 18 players make the Collegiate National Team since 1984. All but five of those have been since 2006.
They are two of nine SEC players on the 26-man roster, with the others being Tanner Allen and Justin Foscue from Mississippi State, Tyler Brown and Austin Martin from Vanderbilt, Asa Lacy from Texas A&M, Doug Nikhazy from Ole Miss and Cole Wilcox from Georgia. No other conference had more than five players make the team.
Team USA begins its eighth annual “International Friendship Series” against Cuba on Tuesday, with five games played across North Carolina. It will then hit the road for five games against Chinese Taipei in Taichung, Tawain, and then five games against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars in various cities across Japan.
Team USA
Heston Kjerstad
Stats: 5 games, .214/.313/.545, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB/2 K
Casey Martin
Stats: 4 games, .182/.357/.364, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB/3 K, 1-1 SB
Casey Opitz
Stats: 5 games, .273/.333/.545, 1 HR, 1 BB/4 K, 1 sac bunt
