March 30, 2022

Official Victoria Golden Tide News Release

Victoria, BC - The Golden Tide are ready to roll!

After a successful exhibition month of March that saw the team cruise to a 9-3 record, the Victoria Golden Tide will begin their first official regular season in the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) with a home-and-home series this weekend with their conference rival Vancouver Island University Mariners.

On Saturday, April 2, the Tide will head north to Nanaimo to open the season with a pair of games in the Harbour City. Both teams will then return to Wilson's Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park on Sunday, April 3, for a pair of games here, the first official home games on the CCBC schedule.

The Tide come into the regular season with some lofty accomplishments already under their belt, as they were the fourth ranked team in a recent pre-season CCBC Coaches Poll. This was in large part due to their performance in the Fall CCBC Championship tournament, where they came one inning away from making the finals, but also because others are noticing the structured, disciplined and top-notch program that head coach Curtis Pelletier and his staff are cultivating and putting in place for the players in the first year of the program.

"In our first seven months of existence, this team has grown from an idea to a structured machine," notes Pelletier. "Our players and coaching staff have worked hard day in, day out to put us in a position to compete in year one. I know the coaches and players are ready to start our first conference season after a great spring training."

The Tide should be equipped well, both offensively and defensively, to compete in their first year.

On the mound, regular starters Brady Wilson, Cameron Dunn and Triston Seitz have all performed well this spring and are bolstered by a good crop of young arms including the likes of Joel Portz and Ethan Dean, both of whom could see the odd start and by lefty Jacob Popadynec and Haldon Craig, who were both named to the CCBC Pre-Season "Watchlist." Craig and fellow reliever Nick Lee, both topping 90 mph on the radar gun at times this spring, will be logical candidates for any closing role.

Offensively, first baseman and RBI-machine Brendan Morrison has been tearing the cover off the ball this spring and he, along with third-baseman Jordan Bond, catcher Parker Harris and Lee (in a DH role), could see themselves penciled in regularly in the heart of the batting order.

At the top of that batting order, expect to see the likes of speedsters Tyler Burton, Daniel Sawchyn and Jaxon Cordle, who get on base often and can use their speed to generate runs for the offence.

Defensively, shortstop Brandon Green anchors an infield that will see Morrison (first base) and Bond (third base) getting most of the action at the corners, with Burton and Tristan Bolger sharing duties at second base. Bryce Carroll (third) and Mike Musselwhite (first) will also see action on the corners.

Catching duties will be shared primarily by Harris and Ryan Whelan, who have seen most of the action behind the plate this spring, while the speed of Cordle, Burton, and Sawchyn, along with that of Chase Thomson and Colton O'Brien, will give the Tide an outfield capable of chasing down many a fly ball.

Following the games against VIU this weekend, the Tide will host the Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks April 9 and 10 and then hit the road for games with Thompson Rivers University on April 16 and 17. They then return home for games with the Prairie Baseball Academy on April 23 and 24, followed by a visit from the Okanagan College Coyotes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 29 to May 1.

After a road trip to the University of Calgary on May 5 and May 6, the Tide return home for a Monday doubleheader against the University of Fraser Valley on May 9, then hit the road for a return pair with UFV on the 11th and then close out the regular season with another home-and-home with VIU, with a pair of games here in Victoria on May 14 and a pair up in Nanaimo on Sunday May 15.