Three local players will be wearing out-of-town jerseys at next week's Baseball Canada Senior Championship.
Infielder Jay Cook and pitchers Jesse Dill and Jon Bourassa will play for the B.C.-representative Victoria Mavericks at the eight-team event, Thursday to Sunday at Citizen Field and Rotary Field. Cook and company were picked up by the Mavericks after the team competed at the B.C. Senior Baseball Championship earlier this month at Citizen Field.
At provincials, Cook, Dill and Bourassa were key members of the Prince George BID Group Grays. The Grays were coached by Craig Horswell and Cook.
"It's an awesome opportunity and one we weren't expecting," Cook said of being added to the Team B.C. roster for nationals.
"Jesse's excited and Jon's the same as me -- always looking to play at the highest level possible. We're just ready to play for the team that wants us to play for them."
Dill has lived here for about a year but is from Victoria. He played for the Mavericks last season and helped them win the 2011 provincials, the qualifier for these nationals.
Four other locals -- Brandon Hunter, Jeremy Kral, Justin Fillion and Matt Stang -- are in the lineup of the host Prince George Westcana Electric Axemen for nationals (see other story). The rest of the club is formed by players from the Lower Mainland.
David Laing, executive director of Baseball B.C. and the chef de mission for Team B.C. and the Axemen at nationals, said host clubs at the tournament are always stocked heavily with non-locals. In fact, Laing said, all teams use pick-up players to give themselves the best possible chance to win.
"This is a real high-end event," he said. "The teams that come are stocked full of pick-ups. I don't think I've been to one senior national championship in the last 10 years where a club team shows up without lots of positional help."
Jim Swanson is the manager of the Axemen. He was also in that role when the team hosted nationals in 2002 and missed the playoffs with a 1-3 record. That year, the Prince George squad had 16 locals in uniform.
"I've done a lot of digging on how past host teams have fared in this tournament and it's very clear that the ones that did the most recruiting and went out and found the elite players had the most success," Swanson said. "As a host team, that's our goal -- to be in the playoff hunt on Sunday.
"It's a good tournament and you cannot have a weak spot on your roster. You've got to do your best to put the best people you can on the field."
