By KEVIN GLEW

Canadian Baseball Network

Chase Tucker will be representing Newfoundland in the Western Canadian Baseball League All-Star Game this Saturday at Seaman Stadium.

And the Okotoks Dawgs right-hander is proud to do it.

“I’m a proud Newfie until I die,” Tucker said with a chuckle in a phone interview. “I’m super proud to be from Newfoundland.”

How proud?

Well, his mound song is “Heave Away” by The Fables, a Celtic Rock band from St. John’s, Nfld.

Fans at Seaman Stadium have warmed to the song. They’ve also warmed to Tucker, who has been a reliable reliever for the Dawgs in his first season with the club, posting a 2.95 ERA in 20 appearances.

“I’m just super blessed to be able to wear a Dawgs jersey,” said Tucker. “Everyone knows the resume the Dawgs have built across North America. I’m sure they had a long list of super talented guys that they reached out to this summer, so I just feel blessed that they reach out to me to come pitch for them and compete for another championship.”

It has been a long road from Mount Pearl, Nfld. to the WCBL All-Star Game for the 22-year-old – especially when you consider he transitioned from catcher to pitcher just two years ago.

But it wouldn’t have been a successful journey without the strong support of his parents, Paul and Cory, and his older brother, Cole.

If the name Cole Tucker sounds familiar, that’s because he suited up for the Dawgs in 2021 and enjoyed an excellent collegiate career at Niagara University.

“We were super competitive when we were growing up,” said Tucker about his relationship with his older brother. “But now we are each other’s biggest fans.”

For his part, the younger Tucker didn’t start playing organized baseball until he was 12, around the time that Cole left Newfoundland to join the Dawgs Academy.

Almost from the moment he started playing competitively, he was a catcher.

“I only caught,” said Tucker. “I was catching Cole’s bullpens and then when I was started playing organized baseball, it just kind of stuck.”

He was a quick study in the sport. He polished his skills in the Mount Pearl minor ball program and was soon competing for provincial teams in national competitions, including at two Baseball Canada Cups.

As he continued to improve, he saw the experiences his brother was having at the Dawgs Academy and he decided he wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

It was Dawgs coach Allen Cox who discovered Cole and asked him to come to the Dawgs Academy. Cox would later extend the same invitation to Chase and the then 15-year-old catcher jumped at the opportunity.

Your 2024 Dawgs All-Stars!

P | Garrett Maloney
P | Chase Tucker
P | Seth Thompson
INF | Brendan Luther
INF | Connor Crowson
OF | Barry Eiseman
C | Logan Grant
DH | Tucker Zdunich

Be sure to check them out on Saturday, July 20th!#dawgs #baseball #okotoks #wcbl #allstargame pic.twitter.com/7rWalCEa7a
— Okotoks Dawgs Baseball (@Okotoks_Dawgs) July 11, 2024

“I’m so thankful for that. I wasn’t the most talented 15-year-old. I’m sure there were a lot more talented guys that they could’ve taken, but the Dawgs have made me the baseball player I am today,” said Tucker.

The Dawgs Academy would change his life. The baseball instruction was better than anything he had ever experienced but he also learned important life skills.

“They instilled values in us, as young men, off the field,” said Tucker. “They prepared me for college. They prepared me to be on my own. I’m forever grateful for all of the stuff the Dawgs coaches have taught me.”

He cites Cox and Dawgs catching coordinator Aaron Ethier as two of his biggest influences. They also helped him secure a college to play for. First, he went to Salem University in West Virginia where he spent two years. In his sophomore year there, he began pitching.

“I threw a bullpen as a joke, trying to make fun of the pitchers on our team. We were just playing around like most baseball players do,” said Tucker. “But then my coach (J.T. Heenan) saw something, and I started doing the two-way thing a little bit.”

He became Salem’s mop-up guy before transferring to the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. for the 2023 spring season.

“I came there as a two-way player, but the first day I got to camp, my coach sat me down and said, ‘Let’s just stick to pitching,’” said Tucker. “And I’m glad that I did because everything has worked out.”

Dawgs Academy alum Chase Tucker (Mount Pearl, Nfld.) became a full-time pitcher at College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y.

Prior to his second spring season with Saint Rose, he received word that the college would be closing at the end of the Academic year. It was devastating news for Tucker. He loved the school and had planned to return in the fall.

“It was a crazy situation and I was contemplating transferring out before spring season, but thank God I didn’t,” he said. “We played our full spring and I’m super proud of the way our team handled the situation. It would’ve been pretty easy to call it quits and give up on the season, but we made our conference playoffs for the second time in 15 years. So, I’m proud to part of the last graduating class of the college of Saint Rose.”

He graduated with a degree in finance in May and is headed to Campbellsville University this fall.

This summer is his first pitching for the Dawgs in the WCBL and it has been an incredible experience, but it will also be his final season with the Dawgs.

“I’ve kind of come to terms with the fact that this will be my last year,” said Tucker. “And playing in the Western Canadian Baseball League is my big leagues. That’s what I keep telling everybody. I understand that this will be the highest level I will play at. So, I am just soaking it in and enjoying pitching in front of 5,000 fans and competing every night and playing with some super talented baseball players. It’s the best baseball team I’ve been on, by far, in my life.”

Tucker has big plans away from the diamond: he wants to become a lawyer.

“I had actually planned on studying for the LSAT this summer and taking my LSAT this fall to apply for law school for 2026, but I had to put that on pause because once I heard from the Dawgs and they wanted me to come and play this summer. I talked to my family and I said, ‘This is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve got to try it,’” explained Tucker. “So, I put the LSAT on hold for now and am just enjoying my last year of college baseball.”

Part of his last year in baseball will be the WCBL All-Star Game on Saturday in front of a full house at Seaman Stadium, where he will proudly represent Newfoundland.

“I’m super excited,” said Tucker. “A lot of the guys have been talking about it. They say it’s a really cool experience.”

And his mom, dad and older brother, who helped him so much on his baseball journey, will be watching from Mount Pearl, Nfld.

“I’m sure they will be watching the stream. They’re my biggest supporters,” said Tucker. “I’ve had the best support group you could imagine. They’ve done everything for me.”