By Chad Klassen

Wolfpack baseball hits jackpot with high school prospects

Apr 8, 2016 | 6:07 PM

KAMLOOPS — The best high school baseball players from across Western Canada are in Kamloops this weekend for the Best of the West baseball tournament, giving scouts an early-season look at some of the prospects they may want to pursue. 

This year, the TRU Wolfpack are benefitting greatly from the crop of talent. In fact, manager Ray Chadwick has hit the jackpot, recruiting 13 players from the tournament this year.

“We’ve got a kid pitching for White Rock who’s going to pitch for us for four years, Saylor Gray,” says Chadwick. “We’ve got a third baseman from Ontario, Malik James who can hit and play the game. He’s going to be good for us. We’ve got Jason Wilburn, another left-handed pitcher, which we are in desperate of, left-handed pitching, so we got four of them coming in.”

Chadwick says in most years, he might be able to recruit one or two players from this tournament, with many deciding to play U.S. college baseball instead. 

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But he says some players are deciding to stay closer to home, a boost for a TRU team that’s young. 

“It’s huge. With the way the way kids like to go down south to play for more recognition and better notoriety, better competition, now with the dollar a little different, we got some really top-notch kids coming to TRU,” he says.

Organizers says the talent at this year’s Best of the West should catch the eye of many scouts. 

“Stock’s pretty good,” says Marty Lehn, who organizes the tournament through Big League Experience. “We have five or six of the junior national players here participating this weekend, then also a number of provincial players from Team Alberta, Team BC, and Team Saskatchewan.”

For the Wolfpack, who are still in search of their first Canadian College Baseball championship since 2009, the 13 players coming on board will help bring a title sooner than later. 

TRU is home to the PBA Dawgs for four games this weekend at Norbrock Stadium.