The WolfPack baseball team are hoping to end a 10-year championship drought next week (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

CCBC CHAMPIONSHIPS

WolfPack hoping to end decade-long championship drought as hosts next week

Apr 30, 2019 | 5:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been a decade since the TRU WolfPack have won a Canadian collegiate baseball championship, and if there was ever a year to break the 10-year drought it may be this one.

“I think we’ve got a really strong group,” said starting pitcher Tyler Moskalyk. “I think our pitching staff has been solid throughout the year, so if the bats are hot I think we’ll do really well. The bats have been hot all year, so I like our chances, and we expect ourselves to win.”

The WolfPack have been firing on all cylinders to sit at or near the top of the league standings all year. Between great pitching, hitting, and defense, TRU has had it all.

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“I’m a big numbers guy as far as how things work out. We’re second in the league in hitting, we’re first in the league in runs scored. We’ve played the best defense we’ve played since we won in 2009,” noted WolfPack manager Ray Chadwick.

Liam Rihela has been the straw that’s stirred the drink for TRU offensively. While he’s cooled off of late, he still has a .347 batting average to sit tied for seventh in CCBC.

But he says he doesn’t feel any added pressure ahead of championship beginning next Thursday.

“The biggest thing I do is not put the pressure on, try to treat it like any other game,” said Rihela. “Obviously, the stakes are higher. There’s going to be some added pressure just knowing it’s the playoffs, so I think if I can keep any extra pressure on myself off, it’s going to make it easy just to stay successful.”

On the mound, the WolfPack have been led by the two Tylers, Hodder and Moskalyk, the latter of which leads the league with a 5-1 record and 0.95 earned run average in 57 innings pitched. It’s pitching that has TRU confident going into next week.

“I think me and Tyler Hodder push each other. We want to be the best pitcher on the team and it’s kind of a little competition between each other,” said Moskalyk. “We push each other to get better, so I think that’s been working for us.” Chadwick added, “They’ve been lights out, and again we go into a three-game series, best-of-three series (part of the new CCBC playoff format) with those two locked and loaded and ready to go, I give us a pretty good chance.”

Things are still undecided as to who the WolfPack will open the tournament against. They remain a half game behind Okanagan College, who they play in a doubleheader in Kelowna on Wednesday. Two WolfPack wins and they clinch the top seed. But wherever they finish, TRU just wants the championship monkey off its back.

“I think me being a senior and this program being in a large drought, I think it would just be absolutely awesome to bring a championship to this team. I think it’s a long-time coming,” said Moskalyk.

The CCBC Championships take place from May 8-12 at Norbrock Stadium with games beginning on Thursday.