By IAN WILSON
Carter Claerhout has accomplished pretty much all there is to achieve in college baseball.
So, it’s no surprise that the long-time member of the Lethbridge Bulls has jumped at the chance to play the game he loves professionally.
The Red Deer product has been with the Bulls in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) since 2022. Through 168 regular season games with the southern Alberta squad, the first baseman registered 16 home runs, 102 runs, 198 hits, 29 doubles, 113 runs batted in (RBI), 76 walks and 28 stolen bases. His .322 batting average speaks to what he’s capable of with a baseball bat.
Those abilities were on full display this year at Bellevue University, where the lefty slugger launched 29 long balls, produced 86 RBI, scored 78 runs, swiped 12 bags and finished with a .491 batting average in 56 games in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
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A stream of awards followed. Claerhout was named the NAIA Lou Brock Player of the Year, Bellevue University’s Male Athlete of the Year, Frontier Conference Player of the Year, American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) – Rawlings NAIA National Position Player of the Year, NAIA National Player of the Year, and the Small College Baseball NAIA Player of the Year. He was also honoured as a First-Team NAIA All-American, First Team All-NAIA, a member of the Frontier Conference All-Tournament Team, First Team All-Frontier Conference and to the Frontier Conference Gold Glove Team.
Claerhout claimed the accolades and kept raking when the 2026 WCBL season got underway in May.
The Prairie Baseball Academy alumnus was named the Village Brewery Alberta Player of the Week at the start of the season and he shot up the statistical leader boards through 17 games with Lethbridge. Over 70 at bats, Claerhout had a .500 batting average, .561 on-base percentage, 35 hits, 15 runs, 21 RBI, seven doubles and five stolen bases.
It was more than enough to get Claerhout noticed by the world of pro baseball.
“It all happened really quickly,” said the corner infielder.
Mitch Schmidt, the associate head coach at Bellevue University and a member of the Okotoks Dawgs coaching staff, reached out to Bobby Brown, the field manager and director of baseball operations with the Ottawa Titans.
Schmidt gave Claerhout his stamp of approval and Brown reached out to Claerhout.
“I got a call from Bobby Brown, then from the GM, and the contract was signed and flight was booked and I had my first game under my belt 36 hours later,” said Claerhout of his whirlwind pro debut in the Frontier League.
That first game took place in Quebec City on June 23rd, where the Capitales defeated the Titans 7-6. Claerhout batted seventh and played first base for Ottawa. He picked up his first hit, a double, in the sixth inning in front of a crowd of 3,823 fans.
“The atmosphere was awesome. It was surreal,” said the graduate of St. Joseph High School.
“It was tonnes of fun. I was a tiny bit nervous, but it was awesome.”
Claerhout recorded his first RBI in his second game with the Titans, a 9-5 victory over the Capitales on June 24th.
As the former WCBL All-Star settles into life in the Frontier League, which is an official Major League Baseball (MLB) Partner League, he looks back fondly on his time at Spitz Stadium in Lethbridge.
“The Lethbridge Bulls mean everything to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my teammates. I was tearing up calling Coach Mac (head coach Ryan MacDonald) because he means so much to me. He was my biggest supporter the whole way through everything. He helped develop me into the man and player I am today. I owe everything to him and will miss the Bulls organization deeply,” said Claerhout, who was a member of both the President’s List and the Dean’s List when he attended Southern Arkansas University.
“The WCBL was a huge part of my development, helping me in taking the next step and getting better throughout the summer. I made some great friends throughout my career in the league and some of them were not even on my team, which is what makes the league so special.”
Claerhout will have some friendly faces from the WCBL with him in Ottawa. Jack Kalisky, a former two-way star with the Bulls, is on the Titans roster and Eric Marriott is the third base coach of the team. Marriott was a long-time skipper with the Moose Jaw Miller Express.
