Pitcher Curtis Sawchuk has seen the weather forecast for Trail this weekend and it's there's nothing cool about it.
The expected high today is 38 C and it's supposed to hit 39 C on Sunday on the field at the eight-team B.C. senior provincial championship.
Tossing heaters in the heat is nothing new to Sawchuk, the 23-year-old ace for the Prince George Grays, who just finished his senior season in the NAIA for the Missouri Baptist Spartans.
He got used to stifling conditions playing the spring and fall seasons in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois and has no fears about wilting in the superheated air this weekend in Trail.
"The guys are all looking forward to going down there and competing at a level that's more intense than the Prince George senior men's league and I'm going to do whatever it takes to help the boys win," said Sawchuk.
"We have great bats, one through nine, a bunch of guys who can leave the yard. We're pretty short on the pitching staff so if I have to go on two days' rest I'll go on two days rest. We're going to face better pitching than we see every night in the men's league but as long as we don't try to do to much we should be able to hang in there offensively and defensive-wise."
Jesse Dill and Graham Allard are the only other pitchers aside from Sawchuk on the Grays' roster. That means they will have to get help with other players stepping onto the mound.
"You win championships by pitching and defence, bats always come around," said Sawchuk. "The numbers didn't pan out in our favour but there's no reason we can't go down there and do well. If you field the ball well and throw strikes, good things will happen, and hopefully we can win a couple of games."
The Grays take on the Kelowna Jays in their first game today at 8 a.m., then return to the field to face the host Trail Orioles at 8 p.m. They play the Langley Blaze Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
Sawchuk just capped a career year with Missouri Baptist, finishing with a 5-1 record with a 3.28 earned run average and 33 strikeouts in 12 games. He helped get the Spartans to within a victory of their second-straight appearance at the NAIA World Series, after putting together a 22-5 record to win the American Midwest Conference regular season title. In the regional final against Cumberland, Sawchuk left the game in the fifth inning with his team ahead 3-1 but the Spartans ended up losing 6-3.
The heat certainly won't bother outfielder Brandon Hunter, the Grays' top hitter. Hunter, who leads the Shooters Sport Pub Prince George Senior Baseball League with a blistering .571 batting average, played semi-pro a few years ago with the Red Cliff Padres in Australia.
"The hotter the better for me, I love the heat," said Hunter, the Grays captain.
The Grays have had very little playing time together. Other than their four games at the Canada Day tournament in Kelowna (all losses), they've had only a few practices and none of those practice sessions were fully attended.
Despite that, Hunter considers this one of the strongest teams Prince George has sent to the senior provincial tournament in recent years but admits their lack of pitching depth could hurt them.
"This is probably one of the best offensive and defensive teams we've put together," said Hunter. "If we had [pitchers] Jon Bourassa and Dylan Johnson and Chris Clark and we could pick an actual P.G. team out of all the guys we have for our roster, then we'd be set. Then we could compete with anybody."
The Grays have picked up Jackson Gooch of Delta, a six-foot-four, 209-pound outfielder who just wrapped up his senior season at McNeese State University in Texas, where he hit for a .319 average in 57 games. Gooch played for Canada at the 2013 World Baseball Challenge tournament in Prince George.
Also back from the American college ranks is Grays shortstop Justin Fillion, a hockey defenceman at Michigan Tech, now fully recovered from a back injury which forced him to miss the 2013-14 season. Fillion's versatility and athleticism allows him to play all nine positions on the field if the need arises.
An injury forced catcher Cole Laviolette to red-shirt this past year at Taft Junior College in California but he'll be back there for the fall season and packs plenty of power in his swings filling in as the Grays catcher. Also on the Prince George roster are James Haviland, Paul Wilson, Jay Cook,Doug Clark, Calvin Todd, and Angelo Desantis.
"Angelo is always a strong hitter and quick on the bases and it's the same with Calvin Todd," said Hunter. "James Haviland was probably our best hitter in Kelowna."
