USA Baseball announced Saturday night that Dillon Maples has been selected to be a member of the 18 and under national team that will compete in the World Junior Championships beginning July 23 in Thunder Bay, Canada.

The West End resident, who will begin his senior year at Pinecrest in August, was one of 20 players to survive a two-week selection process that began with an original pool of 128 players at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary.

Maples was one of 36 players, and the only one from North Carolina, participating in the six-day trials last week. The righthanded pitcher took a big step toward making the team in the first of five intra-squad scrimmages on Tuesday. He struck out five of the six batters he faced and gained credit for the Red team’s 2-1 victory over the Blue squad.

Twelve countries in all will be represented at the 10-day IBAF AAA World Junior Championships, including Korea, the two-time defending champion. Team USA was scheduled to fly to New York City on Sunday for five games against the Greater N.Y. Alliance All-Stars. The team goes from there to Minnesota for nine exhibition games against area and international opponents.

Maples verbally committed last fall to continue his baseball career at UNC. He compiled an 8-2 record for Pinecrest this spring, earning all-state and all-conference honors.

He was recently named a third-team High School All-American by Baseball America Magazine and was chosen to play in the AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic scheduled for Aug. 15 at PETCO Park in San Diego, Calif.