The players are starting to arrive in town, and the Weyburn Beavers are gearing up for the start of the 2023 WCBL season.
Alameda’s Tyren Dorrance is a returning player from last season. He is excited for his second year with the Beavers as he comes off an injury during the collegiate season.
“I’m just really excited to just get playing games again,” Dorrance said while visiting the Discover Weyburn studios. “Make sure everything’s rehabbed fully and just really excited to get back on the diamond and play as much baseball as I can this summer.”
One of the new players coming to Weyburn this year is catcher Triston Madison. He spent the past season with the University of Jamestown in North Dakota. He is looking forward to the chance to play home games.
“In Jamestown, we have had a ton of snow the last year, and we had to travel about eight hours every single week to play four games maybe, and so just being able to play consistently throughout the year, it’s going to be great,” Madison said.
The coaching staff is excited to start the season. For head coach Cam Williams, the momentum coming off of the Canadian College Baseball Conference championship with the University of Calgary is big.
“We got four of our guys from the University of Calgary that came down here, so I know they’re pretty amped up,” Williams said, noting that the last game they played got them a championship ring.
Pitching Coach Matt Sartwell is coming up to Canada for the first time to work with the pitching staff this season. A former pitcher for the Minot State University Beavers, he is excited about the campaign.
"I’d say the biggest thing is just kind of trying to feel the team just put something together out there, and, you know, everyone’s kind of coming from all over the place, like myself – first time in Canada – just trying to have a good time and teach these kids something that they can carry over to their school for next year,” Sartwell added.
The home opener for the Beavers this season will be against the Regina Red Sox. The two teams have had a bit of a rivalry over the years, with the Red Sox handing the Beavers a Game 5 loss in the playoffs in 2018 as Weyburn was coming off the most successful regular season in franchise history.
“They’ve eliminated us in the playoffs, we’ve eliminated them in the playoffs, and there’s always a little bit of bad blood there, so it’s gonna be a good game,” Williams said of the game coming up.
Dorrance has some experience in the games with the Red Sox after last season.
“I think it should be a good game from the guys that we’ve met so far,” he chipped in. “It looks like we have a really, really good squad so hopefully the rest of the guys we meet today are looking good, and it should be a pretty good team this year.”
“I haven’t really met everybody on the team, but the guys that I have met look like they can swing it and throw, so I’m pretty excited,” Madison added.
The first pitch for the game Thursday night is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
