By JOE McFARLAND

There comes a point in every baseball player’s career where they realize “this is what I have.”

That’s where University of Calgary Dinos utilityman Colin Baxter is as he continues to lead the charge for the team as they look towards the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) World Series at the end of May.

The North Vancouver product is letting it all hang out in his senior season with the Dinos, especially on the mound where he’s 2-1 with a 3.14 earned run average through his first three starts, striking out 15 batters in 14.1 innings.

He’s also hitting .229 with two doubles, two triples and five runs batted in over 10 games.

Coming into the season, Baxter says he didn’t have any goals or expectations of himself other than to help the team win and get back to the CCBC World Series – he was part of the 2022 championship squad from Calgary.

As he gets ready for graduation and an eventual move to Scotland to continue his physiotherapy studies, the 6-foot-1 North Shore Twins alum stopped by Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast to talk about his journey, leading to our latest 7^th Inning Stretch.

1. Starting the season at 4-4 and coming out of a bye week, how are the vibes in the clubhouse?

The team vibes are great. We were pretty disappointed with our 1-3 start against Okanagan College, but they’re a good ball club, so we weren’t hitting the panic button per se. Then we went out against TRU and just played really good baseball for the most part. The vibes are really good going into this weekend again.

2. Does it act like a barometer to a certain extent, in that you had some really competitive games against the two teams who went to the CCBC championship a year earlier?

Yeah, we dropped that first game after a gruelling 12-hour drive, instead of eight, because we had to go the long way to get to OC. We’re just telling the younger guys that we’re a good ball club and don’t panic. We’re playing one of the best teams in the league and that we just have to stick to our approach and our style of baseball.

3. Were there any big messages or things you needed to work on going into that bye week?

We would like to work on our defense. With the snow out here, it’s been a little tough. Our pitching has been great, our hitting has been great, so it’s just really about taking care of the baseball. It needs to get a little bit better, but we’ve been playing good baseball overall.

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4. From a personal perspective, the numbers speak for themselves. But how are you feeling about your performance?

I’m really happy with it, especially facing two definitely offensively inclined teams. I was happy with how I pitched those games. I’m excited for Edmonton.

5. What’s been working for you?

Honestly, just being able to throw all my pitches. Any count – plus, minus, in, out, up, down. I’m not a guy that’s going to throw 88 by somebody up and in, so I’m pitching for contact, get my soft outs. My strikeouts are up a little bit, which is surprising to me. But yeah, I think it’s just a testament to hitting my spots and trusting my stuff, really.

6. Going into the season, talking to a few people, they said you and Ethan Webster had really good offseasons. What was it about your offseason that made it so strong?

I think one thing really is just the growing up and maturity thing. Like I said, I don’t really throw all that hard, but coming up with the Dinos, I’ve always wanted to throw harder. I’m in my fifth year and I’ve come to understand that this is what I have. So let’s go with my stuff, I still have great stuff, I’m not worried about adding miles per hour at this point in my career. So I’ve just really been trusting what I have in this moment and that it’s good enough to get the best of anyone in this league out. A big part of that was going down to Arizona, as I had a great start down there.

7. What would it mean to you to bring another CCBC championship back to Calgary?

Yeah, I would love it. I mean, we got our first ‘ship ever for the Dinos and that was really special. It was a lot of fun and I will never forget that moment of winning it. But I want to win it again so bad. It’s funny as I was having this conversation with one of our younger guys the other day and they were like, “What would you do to win?” It was a crazy conversation and I won’t share what was said, but yeah, it was just like – pretty much anything. I want to win really bad and I think everybody else on the team really does too. It’s win and there’s no other option.