Grant Johnson Named To USA Baseball National Team

June 24, 2002

• Righthander one of six freshmen on 22-player squad
• 30-game summer schedule to include 17 domestic games (four in Ohio during mid-July), plus international tournament in the Netherlands and World Championships in Italy.

Notre Dame freshman righthander Grant Johnson (Burr Ridge, Ill.) has been named to the 22-player USA National Team that is set to embark on a 30-game summer schedule, including 17 games in the United States during the annual “Red, White and Blue Tour,” followed by a tournament in the Netherlands (July 19-28) and the August 3-11 World Championships in Messina, Italy.

Johnson – one of 10 pitchers selected from 16 hopefuls at the USA team trials – was one of six freshmen named to the team, with the rest of the squad filled out by college sophomores. The 6-6, 220-pound righthander is the third Notre Dame player in the last five years who has been named to the elite national-team squad, following in the footsteps of former ND infielder Brant Ust (1998) and righthander Aaron Heilman (’99).

Midwest baseball fans again will have the chance to see Team USA in action, July 12-15 in Strongsville, Ohio. The National Team will face the Northern Ohio Baseball Club on the 12th-14th before taking on the Great Lakes League All-Stars on the 15th. The other 13 games on U.S. soil include two in Tucson, Ariz., and a series of east-coast games vs. Japan and various summer-league teams (see full roster and schedule below).

Johnson had been slated to be one of five Notre Dame players (four of them freshman pitchers) who were invited to compete this summer in the prestigious Cape Cod wooden-bat league, as a prospective member of the Brewster Whitecaps (check back to und.com later in the week for a complete update on where the Irish are playing this summer).

The other five freshmen on the squad include Rice righthander Philip Humber (who started vs. ND at the College World Series) and righthanded closer Huston Street from CWS champion Texas. The squad also includes three freshman position players: Georgia catcher Clint Sammons, Georgia Tech second baseman Eric Patterson and Arizona State shortstop Dustin Pedroia (who played at Eck Stadium this season in ND’s 10-4 win over ASU on April 26).

Five of the players are returners from the 2001 USA National Team, including Southwest Missouri RHP Bob Zimmerman. Tulane OF/1B Michael Aubrey and the Stanford OF tandem of Same Fuld and Carlos Quentin also return, as does Rickie Weeks of Southern University (Weeks is listed as an OF but played 2B this season).

The other six pitchers include lefthanders Abe Alvarez (Long Beach State) and Kyle Bakker (Georgia Tech), plus the following righthanders: Cal State Fullerton teammates Chad Cordero and Wes Littleton, Wake Forest’s Kyle Sleeth and consensus first team All-American Brad Sullivan of Houston.

Landon Powell of CWS runner-up South Carolina will share the catching duties with Sammons while Aubrey and Pedroia are joined in the infield by California s3B Conor Jackson, Georgia Tech 2B Eric Patterson and LSU’s Aaron Hill.

Johnson and Street are the only 2002 Team USA members who also played for the 2001 USA Junior National Team that posted a runner-up finish at the 2001 Pan Am Games in Cuba (Johnson went 2-0 with an 0.93 ERA at the ’01 Pan Am Games).

The 22-player roster includes eight who competed in the College World Series: pitchers Bakker, Humber, Johnson and Street, plus catcher Powell, 2B Patterson and OFs Fuld and Quentin.

USA Baseball also has announced that a “real-time” game scoring webcast feature has been launched at www.usabaseball.com. All 30 USA Baseball National Team games will be shown by live play-by-play on our website, including tonight’s opening game against the Santa Barbara Foresters at 7:00 pm PST.

Check back to www.und.com for comments from Johnson as he embarks on his summer season with Team USA.

2002 USA Baseball National Team 22-Man Roster

2002 USA Baseball National Team Schedule