*This article was originally published on Alberta Dugout Stories. You can read it here.

May 22, 2024

By Joe McFarland

Alberta Dugout Stories

Thirteen has become a lucky number for the University of Fraser Valley Cascades in their quest for Canadian College Baseball Conference supremacy.

On the way to their first title in 2019, they lost their first game of the final tournament before running the table which ended with a 13-hit performance and a 13-2 win over the Okanagan College Coyotes.

Fast-forward five years, and the No. 2 ranked Cascades (18-12) met up with the top-seeded Coyotes (21-10) in another final at Lloyd Nolan Park in Lethbridge, Alta.

While history didn’t quite repeat, the Cascades came away with an exciting 10-9 win in, you guessed it, 13 innings.

The contest featured several high-scoring innings, a bottom-of-the-ninth comeback, strong pitching in extras, then a wild two-out, walk-off hit.

“It was a crazy game,” head coach Riley Jepson told Alberta Dugout Stories. “To be honest, all of our games against Okanagan College have been crazy games. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

It capped off a perfect 4-0 weekend for the Cascades, who felt they were in the driver’s seat since before the season even began.

REUNITED WITH AN OLD TEAMMATE

The last time the Cascades won the CCBC title, Jepson was a star player for the team, winning the league’s batting average title (.405) while tying for the league in home runs (six) as he was named First-Team All-Conference.

After starring at the University of Texas-Tyler and a strong season with the Wilson Tobs of the Coastal Plain League, the former Yorkton Cardinal and Lethbridge Bull had a three-year pro career that included 13 games for the Chicago White-Sox High-A affiliate in Winston-Salem. He also spent three seasons with the Great Falls Voyagers of the independent Pioneer League.

In March, Jepson took the reigns as head coach of his alma mater, and felt the coaching staff had already done a great job recruiting.

“To be honest, this is probably the deepest our pitching staff has ever been,” he said. “Having that pitching staff alone can win you ball games and hitters showing up just adds fuel to the fire.”

Jepson and his staff took the team to Arizona for some preseason action, winning a few games to set the stage, where the skipper believed the team could be very successful during the regular season.

Leading the way was Jepson’s former UFV teammate and long-time starter Josh Berenbaum, who went 3-0 in six starts with 40 strikeouts in 32 innings and a miniscule earned-run average of 0.28.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound righthander, who also wears No. 13, was named the CCBC Pitcher of the Year and co-winner of the Senior of the Year for his efforts.

CCBC TURNING POINT

Entering the CCBC championship weekend as the second seed gave the Cascades home-field advantage through at least the first couple of games.

The offence and pitching came together in a big way to start things off with an 11-0 win over the reigning champion University of Calgary Dinos.

Mason Chien and Kai Fyke allowed no runs on nine hits in the contest while Anthony Setticasi and Brady Renneberg had four runs batted in each.

Then a major test came as the Cascades went up against Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and were down 3-1 going in the bottom of the eighth. That’s when the offence put up a six-spot en route to the 7-3 victory.

“I think the biggest turning point for us was the comeback against TRU,” Jepson said.

With a berth in the championship game on the line, the Cascades hammered Okanagan College 11-1 in the semi-final with Sasha Kamenjasevic throwing a five-hit, five-strikeout gem.

More importantly, UFV was able to rest for an evening while they watched the Coyotes edge the Edmonton Collegiate Hawks 5-3 in a win-or-go-home elimination game.

BACK-AND-FORTH FRONT NINE

With the double-elimination format of the CCBC championships, the Cascades were also in a position where a loss in the first game meant they would just have to play a doubleheader against the Coyotes.

While it provided them with less pressure, Jepson says they obviously wanted to end it as quickly as they could.

With memories of their semi-final loss still fresh in their minds, the Coyotes were determined to take it the distance and finally broke through with a three-run fourth inning against Fike, who was UFV’s starter.

The Cascades drew even in the bottom half of the fifth, then the teams traded runs in the seventh before two innings of pandemonium were unleashed.

The Coyotes loaded the bases and scored five runs in their half of the eighth, yet Jepson says it never felt like his team was out of it.

“You could tell in the guys’ faces and their emotions that they thought they had a shot.”

“Throughout the year, if we were down in a game or out of it, you could tell the energy dropped,” Jepson said. “The guys did a really good job of keeping that same energy and their spirits up.”

The Cascades scored one in their half of the eighth, then held things down defensively in the ninth thanks to a scoreless pitching performance from Calgary Blues grad Andrew Vander Veen, setting the stage for another comeback.

Central Alberta Sox and Calgary Bucks alum Eli McKeen got the bottom of the ninth started by getting on base thanks to an error and came around to score two batters later on a single from Calgary Babe Ruth product Max Prevost.

Prevost scored the game-tying run three batters later, and the teams entered extra innings in a 9-9 tie.

SOME EXTRA BASEBALL

Entering extra innings, Jepson says he wasn’t too concerned about pitching matchups and changing his game strategy.

He credits the veteran players for keeping their heads up and picking up their teammates through the ups and downs of the wild finale.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about making changes,” he said. “I rode nine or 10 guys the whole tournament as I just wanted to keep the best defence out there and have our bats show up.”

It didn’t hurt that his pitching depth came to become a major factor as the innings piled up.

Daxton Vanderkooi threw a scoreless 10th before freshman Mathew Picheniuk came in, who Jepson credits for having an outstanding mindset as he threw three more flawless frames and allowed just one hit.

Then two veteran bats came to play in the bottom of the 13th inning.

With two outs, centre fielder Tyson Christie got on base with an error from shortstop Conrad Timmerman.

Veteran right fielder Brady Renneberg drove the first pitch he saw from Coyotes reliever Cory Lawson to left field, where it seemed like the sun started to play a factor for the first time the entire weekend.

The ball dropped to the ground and Christie, who was already running hard with two outs, came around third base to see the Cascades’ dugout emptying out as he scored the game-winning run.

“I’m so happy for these guys to have that moment with their teammates,” Jepson said. “That’s something that they will share forever. And for the seniors to get to go out like that? I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

ANY GIVEN WEEKEND

It was a tough tournament for Alberta’s three CCBC teams as each faced different kinds of adversity throughout.

The hosts, Prairie Baseball Academy, opened things up with an 8-1 loss to Edmonton Collegiate, then beat Victoria Collegiate 10-9 in the first game of the relegation bracket.

The Hawks then lost to Okanagan College, setting up a rematch with PBA, where they won 6-4 to send the Dawgs packing.

Meanwhile, after losing their opener to UFV, the University of Calgary Dinos beat up on Vancouver Island University 12-3 then knocked off TRU 6-1, setting the stage for the CCBC’s version of the Battle of Alberta, where the Hawks beat the Dinos 8-1 before losing to Okanagan.

The tournament was a perfect way to wrap up a season that has been described as a year where every team could beat any other team on any given weekend.