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Published Jun 27, 2019
Summer Ball Update: 3 Hogs at Team USA tryouts
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Andrew Hutchinson  •  HawgBeat
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Three Arkansas players will have an opportunity to represent Team USA this summer.

Catcher Casey Opitz has already secured a spot on the Collegiate National Team’s 24-man roster, while shortstop Casey Martin and outfielder Heston Kjerstad are among the other 28 players vying for the final 16 roster spots.

They’ll play four Red vs. Blue intrasquad scrimmages at the National Training Complex in Cary, N.C., beginning Thursday before the final squad is announced July 1.

If Martin or Kjerstad make the team, they’ll join Opitz for 16 games next month. The first game is an exhibition against the Coastal Plain League (CPL) Select team, which is made up of players out of the collegiate wood bat summer league on the East Coast.

The Collegiate National Team will also host five games against Cuba - with four played at minor league parks in North Carolina - before traveling across the Pacific Ocean for games against Chinese Taipei and Japan. The matchups with Chinese Taipei will be played in Taichung, Taiwan, while the games against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars will be in various cities across Japan.

Opitz will be the Razorbacks’ 17th player to make the Collegiate National Team since 1984, with 12 of them coming since 2006. Martin and Kjerstad could grow that total number to 18 or 19.

All three of the players also have the opportunity to play in the prestigious Cape Cod League if they don’t make the team or once they return to the U.S.

Here’s a complete look at Arkansas players in summer ball, as well as statistics for those who have already played games…

Cape Cod Baseball League

Cape Cod Baseball League

(The most prestigious collegiate wood bat summer league with all of its teams in Massachusetts.)

Coby Boulware - Brewster Whitecaps

Stats: 10 games, .050/.095/.050, 1 R, 1 BB/7 K

Notable: Van Horn hinted that Boulware might try to find a new team because he wasn’t getting to play much for the Whitecaps and it appears he has… His name is listed with an “x” on Brewster’s statistics page, which typically means the player is no longer on the team… Unclear where he is playing now… Went just 1 for 20 with the Whitecaps

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