PBA’s bats heat up in stretch drive of regular season

By Lethbridge Herald on May 2, 2022.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Prairie Baseball Academy's Zach Evanocho delivers a pitch during Game 3 of a four game set with the Vancouver Island Mariners on Sunday at Lloyd Nolan Yard.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

After splitting the first four games of the season back with the University of Calgary Dinos, the Prairie Baseball Academy  vasity team have accumulated a record of 12-4  since and sit in second place in the Canadian College Baseball Conference standings.

The Dawgs took three of four games from the Vancouver Island University over the weekend at Lloyd Nolan Yard and the Herald spoke to skip Todd Hubka after a 13-3 win on Sunday morning about the team’s play.

“Yeah, I thought that was one of the most complete games we’ve played this year,” said Hubka.

“We kind of had one inning there where we gave them a couple of runs, made a couple of mistakes behind them, but we came back. I just thought we played an all-around good game.”

There were a couple of times in the game that PBA were able to escape bases loaded situations from VIU.

“The early one wasn’t the pitchers fault, we made a couple of errors on the infield,” he said.

“So, you know proud of Ty (Schaffer) for getting out of that mess because it wasn’t his fault and did a really good job of getting out of it. You know later on, it’s just a freshman kid that’s trying to figure out how to throw strike one. He battled through it and same thing, got out of it, so proud of him.”

The team has been hitting really well this year, added Hubka.

“We’re kind of expecting it every game and you know we’re not going to score 10 runs a game — that’s not what I’m saying,” said Hubka.

“But we’ve been hitting the ball well all year and hopefully it continues for the rest of the year.”

Hubka says if they’re pitching comes around and start competing harder on the mound, he thinks they have a real good chance at the end of the year.

Josh Kabayama is a Lethbridge product on the roster and says the team keeps swinging the bat and playing as a team.

“If we do that, we’ll find a way to win,” he said

Kabayama added, “I think our competitiveness has gotten a lot better.”

PBA opened the series with a 13-9 win in the first game on a Saturday followed by a 11-7 victory in the afternoon game.

The Mariners would take the finale 12-0 on Sunday.

PBA will hit the road for four games against the University of Fraser Valley Cascades on Thursday and Friday this week.

PBA will be hosting the  championship tournament on May long weekend.