They're the host team but they don't plan on being the welcome mat.
When the Prince George Westcana Electric Axemen open play today at the RE/MAX Centre City Baseball Canada Senior Championship, they'll take the first steps on a four-day trip they hope will end with gold. The club has four local players in uniform but, in the interests of being as competitive as possible, is built with talent from the Lower Mainland.
"All along we said we were going to use players who were capable of excelling at this event and these are the guys who can help us to win," said Axemen manager Jim Swanson.
Swanson, who is also chairman of the eight-team tournament, was part of the original bid committee for the 2012 nationals. In the committee's early discussions with Baseball Canada, Swanson said officials from the national body made it clear that having a strong host club was crucial.
"They stressed that a competitive host team that can contend for the title is important to the tournament, and it gets more people to come and support the host team," Swanson said. "That's been proven in the financial records over the last number of years in this tournament. They asked if it would be an all-Prince George team and the answer was 'no' and that's an answer they liked."
The Axemen will find out right away just how good they are. Their first opponent is the Windsor Stars, who are the defending champions and the favourites to win again. The Axemen and the Ontario representatives will collide at 7 p.m. at Citizen Field in the feature game of the day.
The four hometown boys on the Axemen roster are outfielder Brandon Hunter, catcher Jeremy Kral, second baseman Justin Fillion and outfielder Matt Stang. The first three have played in World Baseball Challenge events at Citizen Field and bring international experience to the park, while Stang is considered by Swanson to be one of the most athletic and skilled players in the local senior men's league.
As is the case in any high-level tournament, pitching depth could be the difference between success and failure in this one. With that in mind, the Axemen have secured nine of the best hurlers in the province. The ace of the staff is likely six-foot-six right-hander Leon Boyd, a former Toronto Blue Jays prospect who has thrown for Team Canada and the Dutch national team. Others who will see time on the mound are Jesse Peters (Team B.C. at the 2009 WBC), Keenan Takatch, Dillon Reynolds, Ryan Eiswerth, Mitch Hodge, Kyle Joel, Jordan Broatch and Bobby Wagner.
This season, Peters, Takatch, Reynolds and Eiswerth all tossed heat for the Langley Blaze, which won the B.C. Senior Baseball Championship tournament earlier this summer at Citizen Field.
"[The Blaze] won provincials probably more based on their pitching staff than anything else," Swanson said. "They are the most battle-tested team in the province. By the time their season is done they'll have played 90 games and I just don't know how you can compete with that."
Hodge, meanwhile, is a graduate of the junior national team program and was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fourth round (126th overall) of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft.
Another member of the Blaze who is part of the Axemen for nationals is towering first baseman Scott Webster, who was the MVP of provincials. He's six-foot-seven, 215 pounds and swings a mean left-handed bat.
Hunter, who manned the outfield and pitched for the Prince George BID Group Grays at provincials, is thrilled to have the 24-year-old Webster on board.
"He took me deep over the Monster so I know he can hit the ball," Hunter said in reference to the tall left-field wall at Citizen Field. "[In that at-bat] I threw the first pitch about six inches outside and the ump called it a strike and then I threw the second pitch in the exact same spot and he tattooed it. I couldn't believe he hit that one."
The Axemen would certainly welcome more blasts from Webster during tonight's game against the Stars. The Windsor team has claimed the past five Ontario provincial championships and are fueled by their pitchers, the top two of whom are likely John Picco and Steven Carter.
"They have five or six guys and any one of them can be their No. 1 on any night," Swanson said. "They are the deepest and most experienced team here and we have an extremely tough job in our first game. But, we think we can beat them. We think we've put that kind of team together."
On Friday, also at 7 p.m. at Citizen Field, the Axemen will face Alberta. The Fort Saskatchewan A's are the true power of Wild Rose country, as they've won the past two provincial championship tournaments and ran to a national title in 2009.
On Saturday at noon at Citizen Field, the Axemen will finish the round-robin portion of nationals with a game against the Halifax Pelham Canadians of Nova Scotia. In their lineup, the Canadians have infielder/outfielder Chris Head, a star for Team Canada at the 2011 WBC, and pitcher Barrett Bellefontaine, who threw for the Axemen at the 2009 WBC.
Teams in the other pool are B.C. (Victoria Mavericks), Manitoba (Reston Rockets), Ontario 2 (Strathroy Royals) and New Brunswick (Chatham Ironmen).
The top two teams in each group will earn playoff berths. The playoff round will start Saturday afternoon, with medal games scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m. (bronze) and 7 p.m. (gold) at Citizen Field.
Tickets (single game, day pass or tournament pass) are available at the park.
