Grand Forks residents will have a home team to cheer for in the Grand Forks Blues but they can also indulge their nationalistic side with Team Canada.
Going into this year’s tournament, Canadian Head Coach Terry McKaig said that the team is a little inexperienced with its pitching rotation this year.
“We’re young, we lost our Top-4 seniors and they all signed professional contracts,” explained McKaig, adding that two are currently playing for the Vancouver Canadians.
He said that there are a lot of freshmen with good arms in the rotation and they might be doe-eyed when they take the mound – Team Canada is the tournament’s Division 3, featuring the San Diego Stars, Trail Orioles and the Blues.
“They’ll probably go out and struggle to throw strikes because they’ll be so nervous and this is what this is all about,” McKaig said.
“This year may be a bit of a struggle for us given that we’re really going on the mound and our two best hitters (outfielder Blake Carruthers and second baseman Keaton Briscoe) are out with injuries and won’t be able to play in the tournament.”
Team Canada’s coach said that it will give younger players an opportunity to get some game action.
The team will begin tournament play against Trail this Thursday and as of last Friday, McKaig hadn’t made a firm decision on who would get the start on the mound.
“I’m leaning towards David Otterman who’s a returning left-hander for us and he’s pretty good and I think he’s kind of set up to be our No. 1 or our No. 2 this year,” he said.
This past weekend, the Canadians had an opportunity to scrimmage with Australia’s Geelong Baycats and while the ‘Cats will be in Division 1, it was an opportunity for McKaig and his staff to do some advance scouting in the event the two meet up later in the tournament and it will be an opportunity to evaluate players on his own team as well.
“We’re doing it (exhibition vs. the Baycats) to find out, of all these eight or nine new pitchers that we brought in, who is our No. 2 pitcher,” explained McKaig about not only his starters but his relief pitching as well.
“With this many new guys, I have no idea. We have to really see how they throw against (Geelong) and try to take some guesses of what roles we think match up well with our guys.”
The strength of the team will be its hitting as McKaig said that the team will be returning most of its position players.
“I think we have a chance to really swing the bats. Some of the key guys, Greg Densem is our fourth year catcher and a really experienced guy behind the plate. We have Andrew Firth returning at third base, Nick Senior, as a right fielder, these guys are capable with the bats,” McKaig went on to say.
“It will be a strength.”