March 15, 2023

By Matt Betts

Canadian Baseball Network

As Team Canada continues on at the World Baseball Classic, the next generation of Canadian talent is showing what they can do on the college baseball circuit. Let’s take a look at who stood out from March 6 to 12.

Duffy named MAAC Pitcher of the Week

Canisius College’s Matt Duffy (Burlington, Ont.) is the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week after throwing six scoreless innings and allowing one hit in a 3-2 Game 1 loss to Marshall. Duffy walked one and struck out 11.

Palfrey the Ivy League Player of the Week

The Lions of Columbia University roared into No. 18 Alabama and took two of three. Griffin Palfrey (Vancouver, BC) was right in the thick of the action with four hits, three walks and six RBIs. He went 2-for-3 with a walk and five RBIs in a 15-3 Game 3 upset win to help his team take the series. Palfrey would later be named the Ivy League Player of the Week.

Dow the co-MVC Pitcher of the Week

The Missouri Valley Conference named Haden Dow (Saint John, N.B.) a co-Pitcher of the Week. Dow led Southeast Missouri to a sweep of Butler. In 7 2/3 innings, he surrendered an unearned run on three hits, walked two and punched out 10.

O’Halloran strikes out 12

Connor O’Halloran (Mississauga, Ont.) may not have picked up the win for the University of Michigan but the Wolverines wouldn’t have had the opportunity to win the game if it weren’t for his performance. O’Halloran threw eight innings and allowed an unearned run on six hits in a 7-5, 10 inning Wolverines victory over the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The southpaw walked one and fanned 12.

Kush leads Govs to series win

Up 2-1 in their four-game series with Purdue Fort Wayne, Austin Peay right-hander Kyle Kush (Guelph, Ont.) turned in six innings of work in a 4-2 win to secure the series win. Kush scattered seven hits, gave up two runs and struck out seven.

Napieralski hits two home runs

Owen Napieralski (Delta, BC) swatted two home runs and finished with seven hits in five games for No. 19 Bryan. He hit a solo shot in a 3-1 Game 2 win over Johnson University and a two-run home run in Game 3. The Lions went 4-1 in the week.

Shakatko with five hits

Cloud County Community College’s Demitri Shakatko (Fredericton, N.B.) stroked five hits, walked three times and drove in a run in three games played. He hit a solo home run in the T-Birds 16-4 Game 3 win over Pratt Community College.

Ashe drives in four

Evan Ashe (Acton, Ont.) played in three games for Southwest Tennessee and collected five hits and four RBIs. Ashe went 3-for-5 with an RBI in a 12-9 win over Jackson State Community College. Later in the week, he hit a home run in a 6-1 Game 2 victory over Motlow State.

McCabe has multi-hit games

The hit tool runs in the McCabe family. Nathan McCabe (Oshawa, Ont.), the younger brother of Atlanta Braves prospect David, went 2-for-2 with a solo home run and a walk in Louisburg College’s 4-3 Game 1 loss to USC Lancaster. He chipped in two more hits and two RBI as the Hurricanes got in the win column in Game 2 with a 9-8 victory. Games 3 and 4 of the series were cancelled.

McFarland earns first win

Ryan McFarland (Calgary, Alta.) surrendered one run on four hits over six innings for Campbellsville University in their 17-1 win over Wilberforce. McFarland walked two and struck out seven. The win marked the first of the season for the right-hander.

Brown beats State College of Florida

Former Terriers hurler Matt Brown (Oakville, Ont.) worked around 10 hits to go seven innings as St. Petersburg College downed the State College of Florida 5-3. He allowed three runs (one earned) and struck out five to improve to 2-3.

Wilkinson wins…again

It’s been a safe bet to pencil Matt Wilkinson (Ladner, BC) into this column each week. Wilkinson worked another seven scoreless innings for Central Arizona as they defeated Chandler-Gilbbert 7-0. The Arizona State Sun Devils commit yielded one hit, walked one and struck out 11 to move to 6-0 on the season.

Daoust, Villeneuve power Weatherford offence

Louka Daoust (Repentigny, Que.) and Robin Villeneuve (Gatineau, Que.) stirred the offensive drink for Weatherford College.

Daoust collected six hits, two walks and seven RBIs. He hit a home run in both a 16-1 Game 2 win over Hill College and in a 12-2 Game 4 victory.

Villeneuve, on the other hand, had seven hits, a walk, 10 RBIs and a stolen base. He, too, homered twice, once in a 11-1 Game 1 win over Hill and again in a 12-4 Game 3 victory.

Carinci uses bat, legs for Mineral Area

Not only did the opposing pitchers have trouble keeping Mineral Area College’s Justin Carinci (Ajax, Ont.) off the bases, they had a tough time keeping him from moving around them, too. Carinci produced eight hits, drove in a run and swiped six bases. He hit a home run in a 9-2 loss to Jefferson College. On the base paths, he stole four in a 10-0 victory over Missouri Valley College JVs.

Tweet launches grand slam

Dawson Tweet (Russell, Man.) hit a grand slam and went 2-for-3 with a double and six RBIs as William Jewell beat Missouri S&T 15-7 in Game 4 of their series to complete the sweep. In the six other games on the week, Tweet got into three of them and had four hits, including three doubles and a RBI.

A second Tweet has success

Dawson wasn’t the only Tweet to make an impact for their team last week. Wyatt Tweet (Russell, Man.) put together five hits, two home runs and 10 RBIs in a pair of wins for Bismarck State.

UBC goes 5-1

It was a good seven days to be a Thunderbird as the University of British Columbia won 5-of-6.

Ryan Beitel (Surrey, BC) made a pair of scoreless starts. Beitel threw seven scoreless innings and earned his first win in a 10-0 victory over Oregon Tech. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out three. He was back on the mound at the end of the week, working five scoreless innings in a 4-1 Game 4 win over Corban. The right-hander gave up four hits, issued a walk and punched out seven. For his efforts, Beitel was named the Cascade Conference Pitcher of the Week.

The Heppner brothers haven’t slowed down. Sean Heppner (Point Roberts, Wash.) evened his record at 2-2 with six scoreless innings in a 10-0 Game 2 win over Corban. He surrendered four hits, a walk and struck out seven.

Ryan Heppner (Point Roberts, Wash.) followed in Game 3 with five scoreless innings in a 21-1 victory to move to 4-2. Ryan gave up a hit and struck out five.

On the offensive side of the things, it was Mike Fitzsimmons (Chilliwack, BC) and Brandon Hupe (Vancouver, BC) doing the damage.

Fitzsimmons amassed 11 hits, worked a pair of walks, drove in eight and was hit by a pitch. He went 4-for-4 with a walk, a solo home run, two doubles and two RBIs as the T-Birds thumped Corban 10-0.

Hupe had eight hits, five RBIs, two stolen bases and was hit by a pitch. In that 10-0 victory over Corban, he hit a solo home run before going 4-for-5 with an RBI in a 21-1 Game 3 win.

Ring lasts five

Colby Ring (Langley, BC) worked five innings and surrendered two runs on three hits in a 15-4 University of Antelope Valley win over La Sierra. Ring worked around five walks and struck out seven in the start.

MacLeod takes tough loss

A quality start from Hunter MacLeod (Abbotsford, BC) wasn’t enough for Rend Lake as they dropped Game 3 of their series with Southwestern Illinois, 2-1. McLeod gave up two runs on three hits over six innings. He did walk six, but struck out seven.

George goes all six in loss

Nick George (Sarnia, Ont.) yielded three unearned runs on eight hits over six innings for William Penn but it was Park University walking away with a 3-2 win. George issued a walk and struck out three, but dropped to 3-2 on the year.

Libke wins first start

In his first start of the season for Bismarck State, Bryce Libke (Saskatoon, Sask.) threw a complete game six innings to help the Mystics defeat Southern California Leadership College 12-2. Libke limited the opposition to two hits and the two runs he allowed were unearned. He walked two and struck out four during the victory.

Geekie beats the Mules

Noah Geekie (Strathclair, Man.) tossed eight innings and held Central Missouri to two runs on six hits in a 3-2 Emporia State win. He walked a pair and 10 of the outs he recorded came by way of the strikeout.

Engel supplies long relief for Trojans

After a rough outing from their starter, Everett Community College summoned Ryan Engel (Vancouver, BC) from the bullpen and he delivered 6 1/3 innings of relief, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts in a 10-1 loss to Spokane.

Touma beats Crowder

Lukas Touma (Whitby, Ont.) took the ball for Three Rivers Community College in their opener against Crowder and threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up two hits in an 11-3 win. He walked three and whiffed 11. For his efforts, he has been named the Region 16 Pitcher of the Week.

Gomm gets Parkland offence going

Austin Gomm (Georgetown, Ont.) had a week to be proud of. The slick fielding infielder started it off with a 3-for-4 game with a walk and an RBI in a 23-11 loss to Southwestern Illinois. He collected three more hits and drove in a run in the next game, a 9-8 loss to Carl Sandburg. A date with Rock Valley ended in a 9-4 Cobras win and Gomm had a hit, a walk and an RBI. In the finale of the week, he went 2-for-3 with a home run in a 4-2 win over Kirkland. Four of his nine hits on the week were doubles.

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That’s a wrap of the top performances by Canadians in college baseball over the past week. Don’t forget to check back in seven days for all the highlights from March 13 to 19.

Do you know of a player deserving of a mention in the weekly BMOC column? Email Matt Betts at mattbetts@canadianbaseballnetwork.com. Please note that our week runs Monday-Sunday.

Be sure to follow Matt Betts at @Bettsy41 for extensive Canadian baseball coverage all season long.