“He’s quickly becoming a big story for fans and watchers of the Baltimore Orioles.
It’s hard to believe that just one year ago, Cohen Achen was putting the wraps on an exceptional collegiate career at Lindsey Wilson College and was getting ready to play summer baseball with the Intercounty Baseball League’s London Majors.
Instead, Baltimore selected the Calgary native in the 14th round of the Major League Baseball Draft, and he has since propelled up the organizational depth chart.”
Read More“When opposition batters head to the plate to face Reece Helland, they are entering the danger zone.
Not only are they facing MidAmerica Nazarene’s top bullpen gun, who is an intense presence on the bump, but he also enters the game with a formidable tune.
You guessed it: the Kenny Loggins classic “Danger Zone” from the movie Top Gun.
Over his four years with the Pioneers, Helland has accumulated a 13-6 record and a 4.47 earned-run average in 84 games, with one start, and 16 saves.”
Read More“Ayden Makarus thought he was done with baseball.
More than two years after quitting the game to get on with his post-baseball life, the Dawgs Academy alum has returned with a vengeance at Bellevue University.
He was named the North Star Athletic Association Player of the Week on April 14, when he hit .429 with four home runs, 10 runs batted in and eight runs scored in four games.
The utilityman did it again two weeks later, posting a line of .375 with four more roundtrippers while driving in seven and scoring seven en route to also being named the Canadian Baseball Network’s College Player of the Week.”
Read MoreOkotoks Dawgs slugger Nash Crowell (Yarmouth, N.S.) recently belted his 56th career home run for Reinhart University to break the program record. Joe McFarland, of Alberta Dugout Stories, recently spoke to Crowell about the accomplishment.
Read More“It almost didn’t feel real to Logan Grant.
Up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning against Dickinson State University on April 6, the Bellevue University utilityman got a hold of a Patrick Dietz offering.
He thought he had driven it to the gap to potentially tie the game 5-5.
However, the ball kept on sailing and, when it landed over the fence, Grant’s 14th home run of the season set the Bruins’ career mark at 45.
“There was a rush of emotions that hit me,” he told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast.”
Read More“Leo Griffin was undoubtedly going to play baseball.
With a family heavily involved in the game, the challenge was actually in deciding where on the field he wanted to play.
Playing the utility role throughout his youth baseball career, the Boucherville, Quebec native moved with his family to Okotoks after his older brother joined the Dawgs Academy program.
Even then, the younger Griffin was torn on his position on the field, until deciding that his most dangerous skill, his speed, needed to be exploited.
His career took off with a move to the outfield and is now enjoying a breakout freshman campaign at Hutchinson Community College.”
Read MoreFormer All-American Girls Professional Baseball League infielder and Saskatchewan softball legend Arleene Noga (Ogema, Sask.) has been elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Joe McFarland, of Saskatchewan Dugout Stories, writes about the durable infielder’s trailblazing baseball odyssey.
Read MoreJoe McFarland, of Alberta Dugout Stories, offers five candidates who have had a significant impact on baseball in the prairie provinces that he believes are worthy of Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame induction.
Read More“A promotion to the big leagues is so close, Adam Macko can almost touch it.
And if everything goes according to plan, the young left-hander would like to do it sometime in 2025.
The highly touted Toronto Blue Jays prospect is coming off a year which saw him play at three different levels, with his final start coming for the triple-A Buffalo Bisons.”
Read More“Unlike a ball diamond’s basepaths, a journey in professional baseball is never a straight line.
No one knows that more than Matt Lloyd, who has endured more than his fair share of detours over the past few years as he looks to fulfill the dream of making it to the big leagues.
He’s been released, played independent ball, represented his country, suited up internationally, almost quit the game, signed a new professional contract, and is now coming off a solid season with the double-A Springfield Cardinals.
The dream is still very much alive.”
Read More“Hockey has one. So does basketball. Soccer as well. And now, it’s baseball’s turn.
The Women’s Pro Baseball League is set to take to the field in 2026 with six teams in the northeastern United States.
The circuit was founded by the first female coach employed by a Major League Baseball team and Baseball for All founder Justine Siegal, along with Keith Stein, a Canadian businessman and owner of the Intercounty Baseball League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.”
Read More“It was one of the most impressive performances the province of Saskatchewan has ever seen on a baseball field.
A team based out of Wapella, with a population of just 400, nearly ran the table for the entire summer of 1924, winning 16 of 20 tournaments they played in.
They won 51 times, were defeated on five occasions, and took home a total of $2,600.”
Read MoreCalgary Redbirds and Junior National Team alum Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) has chosen to bet on himself with his recent one-year, $9-million deal with the Washington Nationals, writes Joe McFarland, of Alberta Dugout Stories.
Read More“It is shaping up to be an experience the Regina Dusters won’t soon forget.
Created in 2020 to help give kids the chance to play baseball for a while longer, the Dusters have traveled to Las Vegas and Arizona for winter tournaments in the past.
But nothing will compare to what they have planned when the board the plane for Cuba in February 2025.
It’s an idea they have been tossing around for a few months, and once they received confirmation and commitments from the team, they started pushing ahead with the logistics.”
Read More“When Aidan Marien isn’t collecting hits on the diamond, he is delivering them on the gridiron.
During the summer months, the Saskatoon product has been found in a variety of ballparks plying his trade as a catcher and pitcher.
Once the fall arrives, he’s on the football field as an outside linebacker for the St. Joseph High School Guardians.
Marien is coming off a banner year in both sports, representing his province at the Baseball Canada Cup and heading to Toronto for the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase before helping the Guardians claim the 6A provincial football championship.”
Read MoreThe Lethbridge Bulls and Sylvan Lake Gulls will face off at Doug Lehman Field in Oyen, Alta., on June 8, 2025 in the Western Canadian Baseball League’s first Rural Roots Game. Joe McFarland, of Alberta Dugout Stories, is excited about the game and hopes it will become an annual contest in different communities in the future.
Read MoreJoe McFarland, of Saskatchewan Dugout Stories, recently caught up with Canadian baseball legend and Houston Astros Hall of Famer Terry Puhl (Melville, Sask.). Puhl talked about his playing career which began in Saskatchewan and ended after parts of 15 seasons in the majors.
Read MoreBaseball Saskatchewan recently announced their 2024 award winners. Joe McFarland, of Saskatchewan Dugout Stories, has the details.
Read More“Getting a call from Greg Hamilton at Baseball Canada is a pretty good reason to be late for class.
Already running behind, Taye Thierman was walking the halls at Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks about to walk into class when his phone started ringing.
Even with Alberta’s new cell phone policies in place, the Dawgs Academy product couldn’t help but look at the phone as he knew the Hamilton was making phone calls for the upcoming Junior National Team’s trip to the Dominican Fall Instructional League camp.”
Read More“Miguel Tetreault couldn’t help but smile as he glanced around Legacy Dodge Field.
Playing in Team Alberta’s first game of the 2024 Baseball Canada Cup in Fort McMurray, the starting shortstop was living every Canadian baseball player’s dream of representing their province on home turf.
While Alberta fell 3-0 to Manitoba in the opener on their way to a sixth-place finish in the national championship, Tetreault says he will never forget the emotions of the opener.
“That first pitch, I was looking up in the crowd and it was a surreal moment,” the infielder told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast. “Playing in front of friends and family, it was definitely a blessing to represent not only my hometown but my home province, too.”
Read More
