The Weyburn Beavers will be back on the field at Tom Laing Park as the Western Canadian Baseball League returns after a 1,022-day hiatus. The Beavers last played on August 9th, 2019, when they lost in the quarterfinals to the Swift Current 57s.
The club missed the past two seasons due to COVID-19, and are now returning, along with the other ten teams in the league. Last season, the Alberta-based teams played a shortened season using local players.
“It’s been a long wait, and it almost seems like we’re starting from scratch here,” said Garnet Hansen, the team president. “There’s so many things that you sort of get out of a routine, so these last few days have been extremely hectic.”
When the team takes to the diamond, it will be a nearly completely different look. Thanks to the hiatus, there is just one player returning from the 2019 squad – Nolan Machibroda. Now a senior in college, he is coming off a stellar season at Cumberland College, where he hit .460 over 47 games with 17 home runs and 83 RBIs.
Some of the new faces may be familiar to fans here in southeast Saskatchewan. Tyren Dorrance from Alameda, who just finished his freshman season at Taft College in California. As well, head coach Dusty Kerns will be entering his first year as the bench boss of the club, taking over from Phil Curtis, who had stepped down at the end of the 2019 campaign. Kerns played with the Beavers in 2013.
With the building excitement for the home opener tonight, fans will have to keep a few things in mind, particularly when it comes to parking.
With the set up for the Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show underway, fans will not be permitted to park in the main parking lot of Crescent Point Place as they have in the past. There will be limited parking available directly to the east of the grandstands at the rodeo arena, and fans will be able to walk in front of the grandstands to the south entrance to Tom Laing Park.
Additionally, customers will be able to park along the streets on 1st Avenue and the other streets in the neighbourhood and enter the park through the north entrance for the game tonight, and tomorrow.