OCNews

The Coyotes are near the tail end of their season opening annual trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix and what a week it has been. On Monday the Coyotes headed to Coolidge, Arizona to face the 2019 Junior College World Series Champions and current # 1 ranked program in Central Arizona College.

Wyatt Hummel, (West Kelowna, RHP, Sr) took the ball for his first start of the season and didn’t disappoint. The Coyotes pitching staff leader turned in 4 strong innings striking out 4 surrendering 3 runs. He then turned the ball over to Nic Taylor, (Calgary, AB, LHP, Soph) who also pitched extremely well going 5 innings to pick up the win in a 9-7 affair.

“Central Arizona is consistently the premier program in Junior College in the country that have multiple MLB draft picks and MLB alum,” adds Head Coach Geoff White. “For us to go in to their field and win a great game 9-7 was extremely satisfying for this team.”

Brendan Luther (Toronto, ON, INF, Soph) paced the offense going 2-4 with a triple, 2 runs, an RBI and a stolen base. Luther has had an incredible start to his season hitting over .500 for most of the trip and playing outstanding defense at short stop. Ethan Loran (Oyen, AB, OF, Soph) also went 2-4 with a triple, 2 runs, and 2 RBI.

“We had some timely hits and made excellent pitches to hold off an extremely talented team,” adds White. “We have been talking about the capabilities of this team and the high expectations we have, and I think we just showed what we can do by taking a win off the # 1 team in the nation.”

The Coyotes weren’t done there as they headed back to Las Vegas to take on the College of Southern Nevada currently ranked # 12 in the nation. The CSN program is where MLB superstar Bryce Harper came from and has produced many other MLB players and numerous draft picks. The Coyotes kept the momentum rolling on Thursday night as Chris Wyslobocki (Etobicoke, ON, RHP, JR) turned in 7 shutout innings while only surrendering 2 hits while striking out 8 on route to a 6-2 win for Okanagan College. Once again Brendan Luther lead the way going 2-4 scoring 2 runs with a walk and an RBI. Nolan King (Saskatoon, SK, OF, Soph) had a massive 2 RBI double in the top of the 9^th to keep the game out of reach. Local Kelowna product Adam Sarafinchin (Kelowna, BC, RHP, Freshman) picked up the save as he worked out of a bases loaded, 0 out situation in the bottom of the 8^th.

“Chris really was fantastic, he had all three pitches working and we made plays behind him,” says White. “They have an outstanding program and for us to pick up another win against a ranked opponent really shows this team’s ability. We have shown that we can play with some really tough competition, and this trip isn’t easy as we play 15 games in 8 days, it shows how deep this team is.”

The Coyotes will wrap up their annual trip over this weekend against the College of Southern Nevada and Community Christian College from California who the Coyotes beat 4-2 earlier in the week.