Unfinished business is a common theme you hear about in speaking with those around Prairie Baseball Academy.
The top team in the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) during the 2023 regular season, expectations were high that they would come away as champions during the league playoffs.
Instead, they suffered a dramatic 11-10 loss to the Victoria Golden Tide in the semi-final, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of those returning in 2024.
Among those looking to finish what they started is Zaden Wake, a Winnipeg product who was coming back from a major knee injury he suffered in his rookie campaign.
The 6-foot tall, 185-pound infielder gutted through the 2023 season, hitting .189 with two home runs and 18 runs batted in (RBI) over 26 games, then became a leader in the playoffs with a .583 batting average in four games.
Wake has been with the program since 2021, and is hoping to finally bring the Dawgs their first championship since 2017 before he heads off to the University of Monticello-Arkansas.
Here’s what the Badlands Baseball Academy grad, who will join the Lethbridge Bulls this summer, had to say recently in this edition of 1 Thru 9:
1. Give us your scouting report on PBA this year. What are you seeing out of them in the early going?
This year, I think we’re a bit of a younger team, so it’s been a bit of a struggle for us to play how we want to play. But I think we learned exactly what we needed to learn during the pre-season to take it into the regular season and click.
2. As one of the older guys on the team, what are you telling those younger guys who haven’t experienced what is a short but also action-packed CCBC season?
It’s just a mental thing. All the young guys are so used to how high school ball is played and whatever. They get to the college level, their heart starts racing, their brain starts running a million miles an hour, so it’s just a matter of slowing things down. Take a deep breath and control yourself kind of thing. That’s been the main thing that we’ve been trying to profess so far from the veterans we have.
3. How much of it is not taking the results of each weekend so seriously and just making sure that you’re simply improving week-after-week so that you’re hitting your stride come championship weekend?
It’s funny you mention that because we were just talking about that. We want to win the last game of the year, so we are trying to make it a big statement that it’s not about you’re your stats are from weekend to weekend. It’s about how many wins are on the board. We’re trying to take the focus away from the stats and focus on the wins.
4. It feels like there’s a feeling of unfinished business in your clubhouse. What’s your gut telling you about coming back from last season’s disappointing end?
You’re not wrong. There’s unfinished business from last year as the way we went out was pretty tough. My gut tells me that this is the team to do it. Based on watching everyone play and everyone wants it this year. It seems like we all have that collective mindset that we want to win that last game of the year, which is huge for team morale and the motivation we’re going to come with this season.
5. How hard has it been trying to come back from your injury?
Going down, I remember it like it was yesterday. First regular season game of my first year, ended up fighting my way to the starting spot and third inning, double-play ball with the bases loaded. It would have gotten us out of there and I just made a wrong turn with the knee and blew it out. My first instinct was to call time so the runs didn’t all score. Yeah, going from that and the long process to come back. It was a grade-two tear of the MCL. It wasn’t enough to get surgery but it was enough to where it was nearly all gone. So it was a long road of physio and it was a mental battle for sure because you don’t know if you want to trust it or not. It took a while to get back but I’m glad that I am back now.
6. Let’s have some fun here. How did you get into baseball in the first place?
It started when I was five or six years old. My dad was a high-level baseball player out of Manitoba as well. We used to watch games together all the time. In particular, I used to love watching Derek Jeter. He was one of my favourite players growing up. I loved the way he played and when I was growing up, I wanted to play like him. So I got into t-ball or whatever it was at a young age and, ever since then, I fell in love with the game.
7. What is your walk-up tune of choice?
Right now, it’s “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake.
8. You’re at the ballpark as a fan. What’s your go-to food?
That would probably be a hamburger.
9. Let’s say you get to go back to Winnipeg and you’re chatting with those young kids starting out on their baseball journeys or maybe it’s the new guys at PBA and they’re looking up to you. What’s that one piece of advice or words of wisdom you’d like to impart upon them?
I’d say get in the gym, stay in the cage and believe in yourself, more than anything. I feel like that’s where a lot of kids will lose themselves or maybe it’s a bad coach or whatever. But if you always have that self-belief that you can make it to the next level, more often than not, you will make it to the next level.
Lethbridge will host the CCBC championships during the weekend of May 17-20.
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