The Okanagan College Coyotes will go into this week’s Canadian College Baseball Conference championship tournament as the second seed among the six teams.
With a split (1-4, 10-9, 10-15, 10-9) with the University of Calgary Dinos at Kelowna’s Elks Stadium on the weekend, the host Coyotes settled for second place in the final regular-season standings with a 20-8 record, one game behind the defending-champion Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs (21-7).
The Coyotes will open the CCBC championship event in Kamloops on Thursday, taking on the fourth-place University of the Fraser Valley Cascades (11-15) at 10 a.m. at MacArthur Island Sports Complex. A second game on opening day sees OC meeting the PBA Dawgs beginning at 4 p.m.
Championship play resumes on Friday with the Coyotes meeting the fifth-place Vancouver Island University Mariners at Canada Games Field starting at 10 a.m. OC also plays the host Thompson Rivers University WolfPack at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Saturday’s action sees Okanagan College going against U of C at noon in their final round-robin game of the tournament.
The first-place finisher in round-robin play earns a bye into the championship game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. while the second- and third-place finishers meet in a semifinal encounter starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday for the right to advance to the title match.
Final regular-season statistics saw Davis Todosichuk (Senior), a Kelowna minor baseball product, lead OC with a .371 average (39-for-105). He was fourth overall in the CCBC.
Noah Wood-Jolivet was runner-up on the team with a .340 mark (32-for-94). West Kelowna’s Trevor Mlait was third among the Coyotes at .325.
Brandon Graham of Prince George, finished as the top home run hitter in the league with five while teammate Jared Frew, tied for second in homers with four.
Frew led the Coyotes and the entire CCBC in runs batted in with 35 in 28 games. The senior infielder from Calgary drove in five runs in the final four games against the Dinos on the weekend for an eight RBI lead over second place David Leblanc of the PBA Dawgs.
Tied for fifth in the league and second among the OC batters were Brandon Graham, Wood-Jolivet and Todosichuk, all with 23 RBI. Jared Dulaba, who was tied for third place in homers with three and finished with 20 RBI.
The Coyotes’ Trevor Brigden of Toronto was tops in the league with a 1.17 earned run average and was tied for third in strikeouts with 43 in just 23 innings.
Chris Wyslobocki, allowing three earned runs over eight innings on Friday in a 4-1 loss to the Dinos, was second among the Coyotes on the season with a 2.70 ERA. The Toronto product gave up 43 hits over 50 innings while posting 33 strikeouts.
Cole Parusinni of OC, despite struggling his final regular-season game (10-9 Coyotes win on Saturday) was second in the CCBC in wins with five, finishing with a 5-1 record and a 3.95 earned run average. He struck out 39 batters in 41 innings of work.
Full CCBC championship tournament schedule
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