Dawgs open season strong, ready to clash with Coyotes

By Lethbridge Herald on March 28, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs opened the new Canadian College Baseball Conference season with a four-game sweep of the Vancouver Island University Mariners over the weekend.

The Dawgs outscored their opponents by a combine 30-7 in those four games.

PBA coach Todd Hubka was encouraged by the results.

“Our pitching staff pitched really well, our starters went deep into every game, and our bullpen came in and did what they needed to do and you know we also played some really good defence behind them,” said Hubka.

“I think we only made  like one or two errors the whole weekend. So we took care of the baseball really well this weekend.”

“We just played good quality baseball,” said Hubka.

“You know we hit the ball hard when we needed to and we had some timely two-out hits. We played the college game the way it’s supposed to be played. When we had opportunity we took care of it.”

PBA will continue their road trip at Okanagan College Coyotes for four games out in Kelowna this weekend.

“Yeah, you know Okanagan, they always put a good product on the field and we’re going to have to play our best to beat them and it’s going to be a really good series,” said Hubka.

“We always enjoy playing them. They’re a class act and respect the game like we do and you know like I said, if we take care of the ball, we should win the series. But you know we’ll see. It’s baseball and anything can go. But really looking forward to playing them (to) see how we stack up against them.”

This weekend will be the first time the Coyotes and Dawgs have played since last year’s CCBC final at Spitz Stadium where OC won the championship.

The VIU series was the first four of eight straight games on the road for PBA.

“I always like playing at home and sleeping in your own beds,” said Hubka.

“It’s kind of worked out good the way the winter won’t leave us here . So it’s been good that the first two weekends are on the road. You know, our fields just aren’t quite ready yet even though our JVs (junior varsity) are playing at home. It’s a little bit of mud involved on our field still. We’ve been on the road already too in February and March with our preseason, where we were down in Vegas for 10 days playing against some good competition down there. And like I said, Pendleton, Ore., (two) weekend (ago) and our team knows what they need to do to be successful and that’s what the preseason is for.”

Hubka thinks if the team continues to take care of the baseball like they did in the season-opening series, that they will be successful.

PBA’s goals are to win the league and win a championship.

“You know those are team goals,” said Hubka.

“As (for) individually, the kids that want to move on from our program to US institutions for (their) schools,  our goal is to try to get all those kids moved on too. But as a team goal, it’s every year at Prairie Baseball Academy, we expect to be playing in the final game of the CCBC and it’s been a few years since we’ve won it and hopefully this year we can bring a championship back to Lethbridge.”

PBA’s home opener will be on April 8 at noon versus the Victoria Golden Tide at Lloyd Nolan Yard.

That game will be the first of four on the weekend between the two teams.