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Thursday, 10 May 2012 07:54 |
by Larry Read - TRU Sports Information Officer
Kamloops, BC—The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack are hoping to do something that they haven’t done in seven years. And that is win the Canadian College Baseball Conference Championship on home turf.
The WolfPack host the CCBC National Championship tournament beginning this afternoon (May 11) at Norbrock Stadium. This is the third year in a row that the WolfPack have hosted this event—and have yet to win it.
This season, Thompson Rivers goes into the round robin tournament as the number two seed. The seeding really doesn’t mean anything. In 2011, the ‘Pack were the regular season champs and didn’t make it into the final.
In 2012, the defending champion Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs of Lethbridge Alberta are the top ‘dog’. They finished the season at 20-6.
WolfPack head coach Ray Chadwick believes PBA and TRU are the teams to beat. “Both went 12-4 in the last month,” he says. As far as the round robin tournament is concerned, Chadwick doesn’t see a clear favorite. “ With everyone having to play everyone, it’s just a matter of what pitcher you want to face what team. It would have been nice to finish first overall again because you have two games on opening day and have a chance to rest up the rest of the way.”
The WolfPack finished at 17-11. Vancouver Island Baseball Institute Mariners (Nanaimo, BC) finished third after a tiebreaker formula was needed with Okanagan College Coyotes (Kelowna, BC). Both squads finished at 13-15. The University of Calgary Dinos are the fifth place seed as they wound up at 5-21.
The opening day slate of games has PBA meeting VIBI at 2 pm, then the Dawgs meet Calgary at 4:30 pm. After the 7 pm opening ceremony, the WolfPack face Okanagan College at 7:15 pm.
Games continue Friday and Saturday (May 11-12) with the first semifinal set for Saturday at 7 pm. The other semi final is Sunday (May
13) at 10 am. The Championship final is the same day at 1 pm. All action is at Norbrock Stadium.
EXTRA INNINGS: The WolfPack won their first CCBC Championship in 2005 at home. TRU has never won the title when they were the number one seed. The championship tournament includes a home run derby to be held Friday May 11 th at 4:30 pm. The opening ceremonies are set for 7 pm on Thursday.
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