WOLFPACK FORCED TO CANCEL OPENING WEEKEND TOURNAMENT (BASEBALL)

For immediate release: March 17, 2009

Kamloops, BC—They’ll be playing baseball this weekend, but not on their regular field and it won’t be as many times as they had hoped. The weather has again played a factor in the playing schedule for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack baseball team.

The ‘Pack were hoping to open their Canadian College Baseball Conference regular season at home on Saturday and Sunday (Mar 21-22). However, the frozen fields and near zero temperatures have thrown a monkey wrench into their plans.

“I heard from the City this afternoon that we won’t be able to use Norbrock,” said WolfPack head coach Ray Chadwick en route to Moses Lake Washington, where the WolfPack were set to play their final two pre-season games of the Spring. “They said that eventhough we cleared most of the ice and snow off the infield, it wouldn’t be ready for the weekend.”

As a result, the WolfPack have had to shelve the weekend tournament, which included the defending league champions Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs of Lethbridge, Alberta and Kwantlen Polytechnic Eagles of Surrey, BC.

“We will try and get a couple of games in this weekend at the Canada Games field,” says Chadwick. “We have told the city that we’ll (the WolfPack) will work on the fields on Thursday and Friday afternoons. The City will come and check things out on Friday afternoon (Mar 20). If they give us the go ahead, we will play games this weekend against Okanagan College Cubs (of Kelowna, BC). I don’t see why the City won’t let us play: its us and not them who maintain Norbrock Stadiums infield when the weather is good. It’s not like we don’t know what we are doing”.

All the clubs in the CCBC have had trouble playing games this spring due to the longer winter conditions. They aren’t alone. Community College clubs in the Pacific Northwest have faced the same predicament.

If the games with Okanagan College go ahead: they will have 1 pm start times both Saturday and Sunday.