The Okanagan College Coyotes will finally get to play some baseball this coming weekend after nearly an entire month off of the field.
The Coyotes are set to play four games beginning on Friday against the Edmonton Prospects High School Academy and the Okanagan Athletics of the Premier Baseball League, which will wrap up their preseason before their 10th Canadian College Baseball Conference season starts.
The last time the Coyotes were on the field they were down in Las Vegas and Arizona, playing against some of the top Junior Colleges in the US.
The trip gave them a clear look at where they were successful and what areas needed improvement.
Even though they have mainly been indoors over the past few weeks, the Coyotes have been working hard to stay in shape and refine the areas that needed improvement.
“Our confidence has grown immensely since our trip,” Says Assistant Coach Jared Johnson.
“We had confidence going into our trip that this team was going to be tough on both offense and defense. We competed very well with some top 10 ranked Junior Colleges and that gave us even more confidence. The last few weeks, the guys have been getting antsy to get back on the field. We believe this is our year to take home the CCBC Championship.”
This weekend will be the final tune-up for the Coyotes before their CCBC season starts. Both the Edmonton Prospects and Okanagan Athletics have been good competition for the Coyotes in the past and will offer a good test before their first Conference weekend.
The first game will be Friday night at 6 p.m. against the Prospects. Trevor Brigden (Junior, Toronto, Ont) will get the start for the Coyotes. Brigden has been impressive this pre-season, bringing his fastball up to 94pmh.
Games two and three will be on Saturday, with OC playing the Athletics at noon and the Prospects at 6 p.m.
Chris Wyslobocki (Freshman, Toronto, Ont) with start against the Athletics and Cole Parussini (Senior, Vancouver, B.C.) with start the night cap against the Prospects. Parussini has been a mainstay for the OC starting rotation and in his last year will look to be the guy to lead the pitching staff.
Wyslobocki has been impressive in his first year with OC. He is able to throw all his pitches for strikes and will continue to grow and improve his abilities.
Sunday will be the last game of the weekend against the Prospects. Aiden Mordecai (Sophomore, Cloverdale, B.C.) will start for OC. Mordecai possesses one of, if not the best Change-ups in the league.
He has had his fastball up to 90mph this spring. The other pitchers who will be looked upon to lead the team are Zac Yandeau (Senior, Plumas, MB) who will be in the starting rotation, Wyatt Hummel (Junior, West Kelowna, B.C.) and Brandon Becking (Senior, Coquitlam, B.C.).
Offensively the Coyotes will look to break out as they struggled on the trip against very good pitching.
The coaching staff is not worried about what the stats showed from their 13 games down south, rather they have a lot of confidence in this older group.
The Coyotes have both the power to drive in runs and also the speed to put pressure on opposing defenses. Returners Jared Dulaba (Senior, SS, Port Coquitlam, B.C.), Brandon Graham (Senior, 3B, Prince George, B.C.), Jared Frew (Senior, 1B, Calgary, B.C.) Davis Todosichuk (Senior, CF, Kelowna, B.C) and Jake Fischer (Junior, C, Edmonton, AB) will all be big parts of the OC Offense, and will look to be the leaders of the group.
The Coyotes CCBC season starts on March 24 against the seven-time defending champions, the Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs.
Over the past few seasons, OC has given the Dawgs their best competition, including handing PBA three of their four losses last season.
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