FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Toronto, Ontario (July 6, 2015)

ONTARIO’S TOP AMATEUR PROGRAMS TO FORM NEW LEAGUE FOR 2016

Five top amateur youth organizations have joined forces to form the Canadian Premier Baseball League (CPBL). The Ontario Blue Jays, Great Lake Canadians, Toronto Mets, Team Ontario and the Ontario Nationals are considered by many in the baseball community to be the top programs in Ontario by any measure and have decided to form this new entity in an effort to raise the level of competition and offer their players better opportunities. The CPBL will offer the highest level of baseball at the 16 & under and 18 & under age groups while also affording their members the opportunity to branch out and offer their programs to talented younger players. Other high calibre teams from across Ontario will be considered for acceptance into the CPBL for its inaugural season and beyond.

In addition to offering the top competition in Ontario, the CPBL will be hosting a National Championship beginning in 2016 with invitations being extended to top programs across Canada in an effort to unite the top teams in Canada regardless of their league or affiliations. As well, the CPBL fully expects to become a destination for American teams wishing to come north of the border for top competition as the league will sponsor the CPBL Can-Am Classic tournament in its inaugural year.

The original organizations of the CPBL represent the premier programs in Ontario. During the last two seasons these members have accounted for 11 out of the 12 high school players drafted in Ontario as well as 18 out of the 21 players selected overall from Ontario including alumni players in college. In 2014 every single player drafted from Ontario in the Draft played for one of the original CPBL member franchises. Notably these drafted players include 1B (Mississauga, ON) from the Ontario Blue Jays who was chosen in the 1st Round this year by the , OF Miles Gordon (Oakville, ON) from the Great Lake Canadians who was selected in the 4th Round by the Cincinnati Reds and OF (Milton, ON) of the Toronto Mets who is the younger brother of OF who was with the earlier this season and considered one of their top prospects. 2014 saw OF (Toronto, ON) from the Ontario Blue Jays selected in the 2nd Round by the as the top high school player from Canada while the nation’s top college player selected that draft was RHP (Goderich, ON) who was a graduate of the Ontario Nationals.

In addition to the success of the players in the Major League Baseball Draft, the CPBL member teams have had extraordinary success placing players in college and watching their alumni succeed at that level. Notably this year Toronto Mets graduate Connor Panas (Toronto, ON) was MAAC Championship MVP and an ABCA/Rawlings All- American while at Canisius College. As well, Ontario Blue Jays graduate SS (Toronto, ON) led the University of Virginia Cavaliers to their 2nd straight College World Series where he has started every game in Omaha for them the last two seasons as a freshman and sophomore.

The CPBL members are also very well represented when it comes to Team Canada. This season 19 of the 22 players from Ontario to appear on the Junior National Team have come from member organizations while during the 2014 season, 21 out 24 Ontario players belonged to the original CPBL member teams.

For more information on the CPBL or the member teams please visit www.cpbl.ca or contact the individual organizations listed below.

Great Lake Canadians Ontario Blue Jays Ontario Nationals Team Ontario Toronto Mets 25 Midpark Crescent 3350 Wolfedale Road 106 Joseph Street 48 Kersey Crescent 1510 Birchmount Road #162 London, ON N6N 0A7 Mississauga, ON L5C 1W4 Lucan, ON N0M 2J0 Richmond Hill, ON L4C 3W3 Scarborough, ON M1P 2G6 (519) 494-0064 (416) 606-4771 (519) 495-0600 (416) 725-4112 (416) 316-1329 www.greatlakecanadians.com www.ontariobluejays.com www.ontarionationals.com www.teamontariobaseball.com www.torontomets.ca