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Grays gear up for Western Canadians

As a collective unit, the Prince George Grays have yet to play their first games of the season. But as the stars of the Century 21 Prince George Senior Baseball League they know themselves and their on-field tendencies well.
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As a collective unit, the Prince George Grays have yet to play their first games of the season.

But as the stars of the Century 21 Prince George Senior Baseball League they know themselves and their on-field tendencies well.

They've got the talent, they just hope they can conjure up the chemistry this weekend in Moose Jaw, Sask., at the five-team Western Canadian senior double-A championship.

"I like our chances," said Grays player/coach Paul Wilson.

"We have a good mix. Curtis (Sawchuk) is pitching really well and we have Cole Schwing and Tyrus Jocko coming with us so I think we'll have good pitching."

The Grays have two games scheduled for Friday.

They take on the Saskatoon Outlaws at 10 a.m. MT, then face the Moose Jaw Padres at 7 p.m. On Saturday the Grays play the St. James (Man,) A's, and they finish the round-robin schedule Sunday against the Border All-Stars of Manitoba.

The Grays did not enter last weekend's Pacific Western Brewing senior provincial championship in North Vancouver and Wilson said the team likely won't play in the tournament again, as they did regularly the past two decades.

"It's triple-A baseball and the Knights (feeder) program is double-A, and we just don't have the people to compete," said Wilson.

"In the last 10 years I don't think we won five games. It's hard to get commitment from guys to go and you always kind of have a bit of ragtag squad. We're short on pitching, even if we have all our guys."

Other members of this year's Grays squad are Kalen Kirkpatrick, Cole Laviolette, Craig Horswell, Dustin Aldana, Scott Walters, Angelo Desantis, Andrew Madsen, James Haviland, Ryan Larocque and Josh Young.

The Grays hosted last year's Western Canadians at Citizen Field and just missed making it to the final.

They gave up ninth-inning home run in the semifinals and lost 10-9 to the eventual champions, the Southwest All-Stars of Manitoba.

The senior men's league playoffs start next Friday night, featuring the fourth-place Queensway Auto World Red Six (9-10) against the fifth-place D.O.B. Contracting Gladiators (8-11) in a single-elimination wild-card game.

First-through-third still has yet to be decided in the league. Traditional Homes Orioles (10-8) have a half-game lead over the Inland Control & Services Tigers and the PG Surg Med Knights (both 10-9).

Games next week will finalize the standings with each team playing a 20-game regular season.