The 91原创 Blaze have always prided themselves on playing a long and arduous schedule.
For example, every March, the team heads to Arizona for their annual spring training trek where they face local junior colleges and pro minor league teams.
This year鈥檚 trip consisted of 29 games in 10 days.
And adding to the degree of difficulty for the U18 Premier baseball program will be playing in a pair of leagues this spring and summer.
Beginning tomorrow (April 11), 91原创 will once again be among the favourites in the B.C. Premier Baseball League as they kick off their 48-game schedule.
They open with a road game in Abbotsford against the Cardinals and play their home opener at McLeod Park on Tuesday (April 15) versus the White Rock Tritons. Game time is 6:30 p.m.
But adding a little twist to things in 2014 will be the Blaze鈥檚 inclusion in the Seattle Premier League.
The SPL will see the Blaze play a 20-game schedule against some of the top high school aged players from Seattle and Washington State. The season begins in June and goes until August.
The PBL regular season wraps up in mid-July.
鈥淲e are going to be in tough, but it is going to be some good competition,鈥� said Blaze coach Jamie Bodaly.
鈥淭his will elevate the calibre of the teams we will play.鈥�
Playing in the league will give the 91原创 players even more exposure to the scouts for Division 1 schools in the Pac-12 Conference.
The 2014 edition of the Blaze boasts some impressive depth in the pitching rotation.
鈥淲hereas the last couple of years we haven鈥檛 made it out of the playoffs because our arms haven鈥檛 been quite as dominant, I think our pitching staff, one through five, are 91原创enal,鈥� Bodaly said.
鈥淕ood pitching beats good hitting (and) that is why I am excited for this year. Our pitching in the playoffs will really help us.鈥�
Of course, having such depth comes with consequences too.
Three of the team鈥檚 five pitchers 鈥� Kristjan Storrie, Kyle Ross and Kurtis Horne 鈥� have been invited back to Baseball Canada鈥檚 junior national team camp this month. Also at the camp are positional players Mitchell Robinson and Luke Horanski.
Ross and Horne are both left-handed pitchers while Storrie is a right-hander.
Ross was 9-1 with a 1.68 earned run average and 32 strikeouts in 62.1 innings in 2013.
Storrie fanned 34 batters in 40 innings and finished 6-2 with a 2.27 ERA.
Horne pitched in 2013 for the Victoria Eagles and went 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA, He had 30 strikeouts in 35 innings.
Horanski and Robinson batted .370 and .369, respectively. Robinson had 33 RBIs and Horanski finished with 30.
All five could potentially make the junior national team and would miss significant chunks of the Blaze season.
91原创 should also be better defensively than they have been in years past.
Another player to watch this season include shortstop Kyle McComb, whom Bodaly called the team鈥檚 best at the position in the past four or five years.
鈥淥ur pitchers are going to love having him at shortstop,鈥� Bodaly said.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
As a final tune-up for the season, 91原创 won the Best of the West tournament in Kamloops over the weekend at Norbrock Stadium. It marked the fifth straight time the team has taken the title.
Connor Chorpita was the tournament鈥檚 most valuable player.
The Blaze went undefeated and hammered the Okanagan Athletics 13-0 in the championship final with Storrie allowing just one hit in the game.
91原创 also beat Vauxhall Academy 11-3, edged the Edmonton Prospects 6-5 and beat the Parksville Royals 5-1.
They beat Okotoks 9-8 in the semifinals.
