Not every Canadian baseball player enrolled in post-secondary education is able, or even wants to, play in the NCAA or collegiately in the U.S.
So the very idea of Canadian college baseball, which has weather and culture against it, is a sound one for the sport in this country. The Victoria Golden Tide and Vancouver Island University Mariners certainly believe so as they look to open the Canadian College Baseball Conference season with a home-and-home Island derby. The CCBC was founded in 2002. It begins the 2022 season this week. The opening games feature the Saturday doubleheader at 1 p.m. between the Mariners and Golden Tide at Serauxmen Stadium in Nanaimo. That will be followed by a return Sunday doubleheader between VIU and the Golden Tide beginning 1 p.m. at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park. All games are nine innings, including doubleheaders.
Golden Tide head coach and GM Curtis Pelletier describes his expansion franchise as growing from “an idea to a structured machine.”
“We are creating opportunities for young Canadian players. It’s like a post-graduate program for baseball,” said Pelletier, a former Canadian junior national team player.
“They get to be part of college baseball in their own country. And for those who want to compete in NCAA Div. 1 or even NAIA, but are not quite ready yet, we work with them to get to the next level.”
The eight-team CCBC also features the University of Fraser Valley, Okanagan College, Thompson Rivers University, University of Calgary, Edmonton Collegiate Baseball Club and Prairie Baseball Academy of Lethbridge.
The VIU angle is obvious in terms of post-secondary. The Mariners, coached by Nick Salahub, have been playing in the CCBC for several seasons, including this year with Canadian national women’s team pitcher Alli Schroder of Fruitvale as the first female player in league history.
As for the club or academy teams — such as those in Victoria, Edmonton and Lethbridge — all players must be registered full-time at a post-secondary institution in order to compete in the CCBC. In the case of the Golden Tide players, the majority are UVic or Camosun students.
The Golden Tide is affiliated with the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League. The goal is to graduate Golden Tide players on to the HarbourCats roster in the WCL, the league which produced 59 alumni who appeared in MLB games in 2021 and 305 in affiliated pro ball.
“[CCBC] grows the game and gives players more opportunities to play college baseball, without having to cross the border, and get a great Canadian education,” said Jim Swanson, managing-partner of the HarbourCats.
“The CCBC is doing what it was intended to do.”
There is an unofficial fall season in the CCBC. The upcoming spring campaign is the official season and runs through May 15 with the Golden Tide playing home games against Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks (April 9-10), Prairie Baseball Academy (April 23-24), Okanagan College Coyotes (April 29-May 1), University of Fraser Valley (doubleheader May 9) and VIU (doubleheader May 14). The Golden Tide have road dates against Thompson Rivers in Kamloops (April 16-17), University of Calgary (May 5-6), UFV in Abbotsford (doubleheader May 11) and one more time in Nanaimo against VIU (doubleheader May 15).
The CCBC defending champion from 2019 is the University of Fraser Valley Cascades. The 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled due to the pandemic. The Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs of Lethbridge have the most CCBC championships with 10. VIU won its lone championship in 2010.
