Every time former Victoria Eagles pitcher Nick Pivetta steps onto the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies, it continues an impressive legacy of sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League alumni who have played in the majors.
The list includes Michael Saunders and Rich Harden from the Victoria Mariners and Brett Lawrie, Ryan Dempster, Larry Walker, Justin Morneau, Jeff Francis, Adam Loewen and James Paxton.
The 2018 BCPBL season opens today with a doubleheader at noon between the Eagles and Parksville Royals on Joe Stephenson Field at Lambrick Park.
鈥淎 lot of talent has come out of this league,鈥� said Martin Winstanley, chairman of the Eagles baseball organization.
鈥淭he BCPBL is seen as not only one of the top leagues for high-school age players in sa国际传媒, but in all of North America. Nick [Pivetta] is just the latest player to make the MLB out of our league. We had him for six seasons in the Eagles organization and you could see right from the start he had a big arm and big frame. Nick came back and spoke to our younger players in December. We are very proud of him.鈥�
The Eagles are hosting their Icebreaker Tournament this weekend, with the Eagles senior, junior and midget teams playing their Victoria Mariners, Mid-Island Pirates and Parksville Royals counterparts in exhibition games Friday and Saturday.
The weekend is topped by the BCPBL season-opening doubleheader this afternoon between the Eagles and Royals.
鈥淲e have a very young team, but a very talented team,鈥� said Winstanley, of the Charlie Strandlund-coached Eagles.
Last year鈥檚 star player in the BCPBL was the fluidly versatile infielder-outfielder Jason Willow of the Victoria Mariners, the 2017 Baltimore Orioles draft pick, who captained sa国际传媒 to the bronze-medal game of the Under-18 World Cup. (The Lambrick Park Secondary graduate has opted to play NCAA Division 1 with the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos this season, rather than minor-pro in the Orioles system, and will re-enter the MLB draft in his junior year in 2020).
Prime players to watch this season in the BCPBL include Eagles pitchers Hayden Wilcox and Mike Musselwhite. Musselwhite was an emergency call-up last season for the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League, and pitched some gutsy relief innings against NCAA Division 1 batters down the stretch drive, for the WCL runner-up H-Cats.
The likes of hurlers Wilcox and Musselwhite have no shortage of BCPBL alumni mound talent to emulate, such as Harden, Dempster, Francis, Loewen and Paxton.
The Eagles, Mariners, Pirates and Royals are the four Island squads in the 13-team BCPBL. The 2018 schedule begins in earnest next weekend with all teams in action.
