This year feels different to Cody Graf.
The Lloydminster native is into his third season with Prairie Baseball Academy and believes this is the year the program can return to its Canadian College Baseball Conference championship ways.
Having not won the title since 2017, head coach Todd Hubka has a few more veterans on the roster than he’s had in recent years, with Graf being one of the rare third-year players.
The hard-throwing right-hander posted a 10.80 earned-run average in eight appearances in 2023 and followed that up by going 0-4 with a 9.94 ERA in six games in an offense-heavy 2024 campaign.
Graf says his focus for this year will be to stay healthy and be a major presence coming out of the bullpen for the Dawgs.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Bulldogs Baseball Academy alum joined us for the Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast “CCBC Season Preview Extravaganza,” with a few of his answers helped us build the basis of our first 7th Inning Stretch of the season, which will be focused solely on players in “the CC” this spring.
1. How excited are you to get things going?
Oh, I’m ecstatic. Just the team this year. I’ve never been this excited in the past three years.
2. What’s the vibe like in that clubhouse heading into the season?
Vibes are high. I’m really excited about our pitching staff, too, this year. We have four starters, all really, really good, and our bullpen is one of the best I’ve seen. Our hitters, too, are unreal. I’ve never been a part of a team like this, so I’m excited.
3. Coach Hubka said you were a young team last year. Looking back on it, what did you learn from that experience that you’re taking into 2025?
We are an older group this year. We have a couple of younger guys, but the leadership this year is really good. We all learned from last year that playoffs are a whole different ballgame. It doesn’t matter up until playoffs … well it does, but you know what I mean. Anything can happen in the playoffs.
4. What’s been the message in the room to get yourselves ready for the next few weeks?
It’s all about getting hot at the right time, in my opinion. You’ve seen it with Calgary two years ago when they won. They got hot at the right time and they were improving throughout the whole season. For my team this year, from what I’m seeing already, we’re steadily improving and everyone’s getting better. If we can keep doing that, I think we’re going to have a really good chance of winning this year.
5. Any expectations of yourself heading into this season?
My goal is to be the Reliever of the Year. That’s what I’m setting my sights on. I just want to be that guy. Honestly, I’m not too worried about the numbers. I just want to be the lockdown guy for my team and hopefully seal some games.
6. How did you get into baseball in the first place?
My dad put me in t-ball when I was younger and I enjoyed it. I also played hockey, but baseball was always the one I was better at so I decided to continue with it.
7. For those young kids looking for advice on how to get to where you’re at now, what would you like to get across to them?
Don’t worry about what you see on social media. You see a bunch of 15-year-olds throwing 94. Those guys are outliers. That’s not normal and people really get in their head that they should be throwing that hard, but it’s not. It’s a lot harder than you think and those kids are special.
