Wilson: 2025 WCBL Season Preview - Okotoks Dawgs
The Okotoks Dawgs will be seeking their fourth consecutive Western Canadian Baseball League title in 2025. Photo: WCBL
*This article was originally published on Alberta Dugout Stories on April 22. You can read it here.
April 25, 2025
By Ian Wilson
Alberta Dugout Stories
The championship three-peat is complete.
So, what will the Okotoks Dawgs do for an encore?
The Dawgs showed grit and resilience in capturing the 2024 Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) title, their third consecutive and eighth championship in franchise history. It marked the second time the Dawgs completed the three-peat feat. They achieved it initially between 2007 and 2009.
Following a 42-14 regular season, Okotoks went the distance in all of their best-of-three series. The Dawgs survived their opening round tilt against the Lethbridge Bulls by coming away with an extra-innings victory in Game 3, before besting the Sylvan Lake Gulls in a back-and-forth matchup between fierce rivals.
The final featured the Dawgs versus the Moose Jaw Miller Express, a rematch of the 2022 championship. Corner infielder Connor Crowson sent the Seaman Stadium faithful into a frenzy when he hit a walk-off home run over the fence to clinch the title in dramatic fashion.
It's unclear what the Dawgs will do next to top that.
They could channel "Frank the Tank" from the movie Old School and go streaking towards the quad. If so, they've got all the ingredients for another great party.
Okotoks set a WCBL team attendance record again in 2024 by drawing a total of 133,664 fans to 28 regular season games, resulting in an average crowd of 4,774. Another 24,665 spectators - 4,933 per contest - came out to their five home postseason games.
The facilities available to the players and coaches are also being upgraded. The weight training centre at Duvernay Fieldhouse is growing by 4,000 square feet and will include new baseball-specific weights and training equipment. In addition, the Dawgs are looking to install a 6,000 square-foot pitching and hitting lab this spring. That will be equipped with five new batting and pitching lanes, as well as a viewing and instruction area that features state-of-the-art technology for improving mechanics for hitters and pitchers.
COACHING
The coaching staff will once again be led by former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Lou Pote, who serves as the interim manager for a third straight season. Pote has been filling in for Mitch Schmidt, who remains on a medical leave of absence. Schmidt guided the Dawgs to WCBL championships in 2019 and 2022, while Pote continued the team’s winning ways by leading Okotoks to another pair of titles. Pote is also the director of player development for the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy.
Assisting Pote are Dave Robb, Andy Peterson and Joe Sergent.
Robb, who also coaches at Mesa Community College, has been in the dugout for all of the Dawgs championship squads. "DR" has years of international experience and will serve as the club’s hitting and bench coach.
Peterson, the head coach at Linn-Benton Community College, returns to work as the infield coach for a sixth summer. The former draft pick of the Seattle Mariners was named the 2024 Coach of the Year after he led the Roadrunners to a Northwest Athletic Conference championship.
Sergent – a 1999 Florida Marlins draft pick – is back as the pitching coach for a seventh WCBL season. The southpaw from California logged over 800 innings as a professional, including three seasons with the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League, where he won a title in 2009. In the minor leagues, he played as high as Double-A as a member of the Portland Sea Dogs in 2002.
Savannah Blakley has been working with the Dawgs since 2012. The experienced athletic therapist studied at Mount Royal University in Calgary and is the owner of ProSport Athletic & Physical Therapy.
PITCHING
It's difficult to imagine a summer without Sherwood Park southpaw Graham Brunner climbing atop the mound at Seaman Stadium, but after seven seasons with the Dawgs he has retired from WCBL action. The steady starting pitcher - who is the team's all-time wins leader with 30 career victories - will still be around, however. He signed on as a coach with the Dawgs after the 2024 campaign.
Despite the loss of Brunner, there will be plenty of familiar faces taking the bump in red and white.
Calgarian Ryan McFarland has been with the Dawgs since 2021. In that time, the 6-foot-2 righty is 10-4 with 86 strikeouts over 135-plus innings of regular season and playoff action. Local product Brody Forno has been alongside McFarland during his tenure in Okotoks and assembled a 10-2 record and a 3.42 earned run average (ERA), while registering 113 Ks in 115 2/3 innings. Both pitchers are capable of working as starters or relievers.
Chase Tucker was a busy bullpen body in 2024. The Newfoundlander appeared in 25 games, struck out 21 batters, issued four walks and went 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA in his 26 2/3 innings of work. Pendleton, Oregon product Easton Corey was also summoned for relief work last summer and produced a 1.93 ERA, a 1-1 record, a save and 31 strikeouts in 18 2/3 regular season and playoff innings.
While Tucker and Corey delivered dependability, Ashton Luera was a tour de force as the closer. The righthander from Albuquerque, New Mexico kept hitters guessing with his flummoxing mix of fastballs and curveballs. Luera collected six saves, a 1.47 ERA and 47 Ks over 25 regular season appearances and 24 1/3 innings. In the 2024 playoffs, he was called upon when the Dawgs need clutch outs to finish off games. Luera delivered three postseason saves - one against every playoff opponent the Dawgs faced - and 18 strikeouts in 10 innings.
Tucker, Corey and Luera were key bullpen pieces in 2024 and will be counted on again in 2025, especially with long-time Dawgs reliever Cade Herrmann no longer a part of the team.
Texan Trent Warstler was used primarily as a reliever last year, but three of his 25 game appearances were starts. The righthander was 3-1 with a save while registering a 5.51 ERA and a strikeout per inning in his 31 frames of regular season work.
Brady Baltus and Brandon LeBlanc are returning to Okotoks after spending the last couple of summers elsewhere. With the Dawgs in 2022, Baltus went 4-2 with 38 strikeouts over 48 1/3 innings as a right-handed starting pitcher. LeBlanc is a British Columbia native who posted a 1.93 ERA and 11 Ks in 9 1/3 innings as a reliever that year. His only win for the Dawgs came in the 2022 postseason and it helped eliminate the Sylvan Lake Gulls from the playoffs.
New to the Dawgs this year are Brett Allen, a 6-foot-5 Australian righthander who plays for Reinhardt University; Matt Marsh, a lefty from Havelock, Ontario; and Seth Gurr, a 6-foot-2 righty from Coaldale, Alberta.
BATTING
The Dawgs will miss middle infielder Brendan Luther, a player who always elevated his game in the biggest moments. The Ontarian won back-to-back WCBL Playoff MVP honours in 2022 and 2023 and formed a lethal one-two punch at the top of the Okotoks lineup with second baseman Ricardo Sanchez.
Sanchez remains, as do several other veteran hitters who can pace the offence. The Mexico City product who came up through Dawgs Academy was the league's regular season MVP in 2022 and he has smacked 177 hits for Okotoks in 167 WCBL games since 2019.
Connor Crowson, the 2024 WCBL Playoff MVP, is also back for another tour. The local first baseman has a .351 batting average, 138 runs and 128 runs batted in (RBIs) in his 172 games for the summer collegiate Dawgs since 2021.
The heavy hitting of Nash Crowell returns to the lineup, as well. The righty slugger from Nova Scotia has 20 round trippers and 73 RBIs for the Dawgs in 71 playoff and regular season contests for Okotoks over the last two seasons. Typically deployed as a designated hitter, Crowell can also slot in at first base. He recently became the all-time home run leader at Reinhardt University, surpassing Dawgs teammate Tucker Zdunich, who recently signed a pro contract with the Trois Rivieres of the Frontier League.
Calgary infielder Aidan Rose, who plays for the University of British Columbia (UBC), will suit up for the Dawgs for a fifth straight summer. He has a career batting average of .279 in the WCBL and came up with some big knocks for Okotoks during their 2024 playoff run.
Middle infielder Eric Machej could take on a bigger role with the club in 2025. The Dawgs Academy grad has appeared in 19 games for Okotoks the last two summers and helped the team win a 2023 championship by batting .438 with four doubles in five playoff contests that postseason.
Benito Bonilla - a 6-foot-4 right-handed hitter from Halifax, Nova Scotia - could also be relied upon more heavily this season. The Missouri State University student made it into six games for the Dawgs in 2024 and went off against WCBL pitchers, launching four long balls, scoring seven runs and recording 10 RBI in just 17 at bats. Bonilla is listed as an infielder but also has experience in the outfield.
Okotoks has also recruited a pair of Canadian infielders who are new to the squad. Brandon Paez is a Dawgs Academy middle infielder from Montreal, Quebec who attends the University of Utah, while Matt Van Slyke is a Mineral Area College player from Whitby, Ontario.
In the outfield, former catcher and infielder Logan Grant will gallop over the grass at Seaman Stadium. The lefty batter enters his third season with the Dawgs after spending time with the Sylvan Lake Gulls and Swift Current 57's earlier in his career. With Okotoks, the Calgarian has a .316 batting average, 23 stolen bases and 83 runs in 91 games. Grant is the all-time home run leader for the Bellevue University Bruins.
Another returning outfielder is Barry Eiseman, who logged 30 games for the Dawgs in 2024. The Tampa, Florida native batted .317 with 25 RBI in 104 at bats.
New outfielders on the team include Ayden Crouse of Chandler-Gilbert Community College; Jake Skaggs of Pittsburgh State University; and Steven Elsner of Bellevue University. Zane Skansi is an infielder and outfielder who hits for contact and power at Campbellsville University.
Behind the plate, the Dawgs bid farewell to glue guy Caleb Lumbard, who framed pitches for the team dating back to 2021.
Jason Arriola, Jacob Wrubleski and Louis-Felix Anderson all spent time playing with Lumbard in Okotoks last summer. Anderson has suited up in 35 games for the Dawgs over the last two seasons and got into a pair of playoff games in 2024. The Montreal product had 21 RBIs and 23 runs in those contests. Arriola is a switch hitter from California who had 16 RBIs and 19 runs in 33 WCBL games last year. Wrubleski, who attends Gonzaga University, batted .309 with three homers in 16 games with Okotoks in 2024.
Added to the mix is a familiar name. Chase Logan is the younger brother of Gavin Logan, who geared up behind the dish for the Dawgs before he went on to play professionally in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. Chase also followed in his brother's footsteps by playing at Linn-Benton Community College.
Home Ballpark: Seaman Stadium
Home Opener: 7:05 p.m., Saturday, May 31st vs. Energy City Cactus Rats
2025 WCBL All-Star Game & Home Run Derby: Saturday, July 19th, Seaman Stadium
2024 Regular Season Results: 2nd place in WCBL with 42 wins & 14 losses
2024 Playoff Results: WCBL Champions with 2-1 series win over Moose Jaw Miller Express; 6-3 record in postseason
View 2025 Okotoks Dawgs Roster
WCBL Championships: 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024