Regina Optimist Baseball Association and the City of Regina will try and hit another homerun this summer.
The 2023 Baseball Canada Cup will take place in the Queen City from August 9-13 at Currie Field and Regina Optimist Baseball Park. There will be 36 games during the five-day event, with 22 of the games held at Regina Optimist Baseball Park and 14 of them at Currie Field. This summer also marks the 60th anniversary of the Regina Optimist Baseball Park.
Ten provincial All-Star teams, including Team Saskatchewan will compete for the championship. Each province will select an roster of the best U17 players in July.
Regina hosted the event in 2019 and was scheduled to do so again in 2021, but the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. Overall this will be the third time the Baseball Canada Cup will be held in Regina.
Chair Warren Pielak says Regina enjoys a successful history of hosting prestigious baseball tournaments including the Canada Cup.
“It’s Regina hospitality, it’s the city, it’s the partnerships, it’s the volunteers, it’s everybody and when people come here and I’ve this time and time again from people, we’ve never had a better time.”
There will be between 85-100 volunteer members that will be involved with the 2023 Baseball Canada Cup.
Team Saskatchewan began their preparations for the tournament last fall with a group of players attending a tournament in Arizona. During the winter, between 35-40 players participated in the a week-long tournament in Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida. Earlier this spring, a group of players competed in the Best of the West tournament in Kamloops. The tournaments were used for the coaches to identify potential players before they make their final selections.
Greg Brons will be the head coach of Team Saskatchewan with former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Dustin Molleken serving as the team’s pitching coach.
Some of the players that have competed in previous editions of the Baseball Canada Cup that would go on to the majors include, Russell Martin, Justin Morneau, Ryan Dempster, Brett Lawrie, Nick Pivetta and Cal Quantrill.
Tickets for the event will become available in June featuring tournament passes, day passes and game passes.
Along with the final rosters, the full 2023 Baseball Canada Cup schedule will be announced at a later date.
More information for the event can be found http://reginaoptimistbaseball.ca