Bulls head coach MacDonald looks back on 2025 WCBL campaign

By Lethbridge Herald on August 12, 2025.

Nathan Reiter

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Lethbridge Bulls 2025 WCBL season has come to a close, but there’s plenty of optimism for 2026 and beyond at Spitz Stadium.

Lethbridge was eliminated in two games in the first round of the playoffs by the Sylvan Lake Gulls. 

The Bulls finished in third place in the West Division for the third straight season, posting a 33-22 record. Lethbridge was locked in a close race for playoff seeding all season long with the Okotoks Dawgs and Sylvan Lake Gulls.

In an interview with the Herald, head coach Ryan MacDonald says the start for Lethbridge set them behind the eight ball in the division race.

“We just gave away too many games early, starting the season 0-3, not having a lot of guys here. Down three games right away that potentially can push you over the hump to get to second place is not ideal. It’s happened the last two or three years where guys are still at school and stuff like that.”

In terms of graduating players, Lethbridge has two key pitchers moving on with right-handers Levi Abbott and Maxim Mrakovcic coming to the end of their college eligibility.

MacDonald says both players were excellent all season long.

“Levi Abbott, it speaks for itself. 7-1 with a 1.39 ERA. He’s probably going to finish with the top pitcher of the league. Max, same thing. He did have one more year of eligibility, but he decided he’s going to move on with life. Every game he came into, he gave you a chance to win.”

Throughout the season, Lethbridge got plenty of contributions from underclassmen in their lineup. 

Brennan McTavish, Luke Wheatley, Will Turner and Stevyn Andrachick all got regular at-bats despite only being listed as freshmen on the team’s roster. McTavish was also named to the WCBL All-Star Game as one of Lethbridge’s representatives.

MacDonald says the young core is going to be important for Lethbridge moving forward.

“We have a good core group of younger guys, (Brennan) McTavish, (Luke) Wheatley and those guys, we didn’t really have an older team this year. The one place I think we were lacking was the catching position. Noah McNeil going down early with some sprained ligaments in his wrist hurt us right from the get-go and we had to throw Adonis (Bernal) back there, that’s not his primary position and he did a great job for us. We’re really looking forward to the core group of guys coming back and building off of what we need to fill the spots to move forward.”

Sharing the same division as perennial contenders in Sylvan Lake and Okotoks, the Bulls are always facing tough competition in the West Division. 

Lethbridge has failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs since 2021, the last time the Bulls took home the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy as league champions.

MacDonald says the key to Lethbridge getting over the hump in 2026 is limiting mistakes.

“I think it just all comes down to pitching and defense. Defensively, we had glimpses of being very good. In other games, we’d show up and make three or four errors. You just can’t make mistakes against teams like Sylvan, Saskatoon, or Okotoks because they come back to bite you in the butt. I always say that they’re mental mistakes, that they’re not physical, just because we’re trying to do too much, or we’re not playing the ball the right way, or trying to do way more beyond what we need to do to take care of the baseball. Just when you play good teams, you can’t afford to make mistakes.”

Heading into the 2026 season, Lethbridge is expecting to return three major bats. Outfielder Lee Matsuzaki will be attending the University of Nevada this fall and has expressed interest in coming back to the Bulls. Jack Kalisky and Carter Claerhout are expected to take their spots in the middle of the Lethbridge lineup next summer as well.

MacDonald says having three key hitters back in the fold puts Lethbridge in a great situation heading into offseason recruiting.

“It’s integral to our success moving into next year. You don’t have to recruit that guy in the three or four hole. Every team in the league typically is like ‘who’s going to hit the heart of a lineup?’. You go a lot off of word of mouth and numbers. A lot of guys you bring up just aren’t what you expect and they can’t fill those roles. Being able to have that core three locked up and build the pieces around those guys, to be more productive is definitely a good thing moving into next year.”