PBA happy with first half of season

By Lethbridge Herald on April 20, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs senior varsity team  are sitting comfortably atop the Canadian College Baseball Conference standings with a 12-4 record at the halfway point of the regular season.

“You know very happy,” said coach Todd Hubka, on the team’s first half.

“You know we’re in first place right now with a 12 and four record. You know last weekend, I think we gave a couple of  games away (against the TRU Wolfpack). I think we had an opportunity to have a real lock on first place, but didn’t play to our ability on Sunday and it came back and bit us in the butt. But for the most part, for these kids, it’s hard. You know we spent a lot of time on the road to start the year off and for the most part I’m pretty happy with what our record is so far.”

Hubka thinks to be in the position they’re in is attributed to their strong pitching and the progression of hitting well as a team.

“We’re hitting quite well as a team too, but you know defence and pitching win championships and I think, for the most part, our pitching (has) been our strong point,” said Hubka.

Hubka said sometimes these kids don’t understand that going through the motions midseason effects what the outcome is in May.

“And you have to have that championship mentality, that every day you show up to the baseball field, that you are getting better and no days off type (of) thing,” said Hubka.

“And that’s the secret of college baseball is getting better every day and hopefully at the end of the year (in May) you’re playing in that championship game and winning.”

CCBC introduced a bye week this season and PBA are keeping practices short.

“Yeah, well it’s finals week too right at the college and university” said Hubka.

“So we’re trying to keep practices really short (and) letting the kids get lots of time to finish

 up their academics. You know just trying to keep it light right now. We’ve got bumps and bruises that we’re trying to heel up and just kind of show up every day and take care of business but keep it light just so we’re healthy going into the second half.”

PBA had gone 2-3 in their last five games before the break.

“I don’t necessarily feel like we’re losing to teams,” said second year varsity player Sammy Hilgersom.

“I think we’re kind of beating ourselves and just making uncharacteristic mistakes ,and just working on stuff in practice (and) kind of understanding what we have to do to win a championship at the end of the year.”

Teams have been coming in with the mindset to beat the Dawgs and  Hilgersom thinks it’s about playing their game.

“… We’ve got probably the most well-known program in the conference,” said Hilgersom.

“So we’re always the team that everybody wants to beat and they’re always looking to play their best ball when they come down here. So kind of  just staying within working as a team and doing whatever we can to get the job done.”

Carter Claerhout leads PBA in every offensive category with a .559 batting average, three home runs and 18 RBIs in the first half of the season.

Cardston’s Ty Schaffer leads the pitchers with four wins, Max Benton leads with 37 strikeouts and Noah Lebleu has an earned run average (ERA) of 0.00.

PBA will be back in action against Edmonton Collegiate Hawks for a four-game set in Alberta’s capital city on April 29-30.

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