By JOE McFARLAND

It hasn’t taken Jace Daku long to earn Jake Lanferman’s trust.

In his freshman season with the Edmonton Collegiate Hawks, the Martensville native played in some important moments behind the plate while hitting .275 with five doubles, 11 runs batted in, 10 runs scored and two stolen bases in 25 games.

Daku’s performance earned him some playing time with the West Coast League’s Edmonton Riverhawks – where Lanferman is also the head coach – getting into five games as a defensive replacement while adding a single in three at-bats.

Back for his sophomore season, the MacEwan University commerce student will be leaned on to be a veteran presence catching a fairly new pitching staff without some of the names we’ve gotten to know over the years like Halen Knoll, Matthew Ridsdale and Nick Backstrom.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Daku, who is a Sask Five Giants alum, joined us on the CCBC Season Preview Extravaganza, which helped form the basis for our latest “7^th Inning Stretch.”

1. Give us your scouting report on the Hawks heading into the season. What are you seeing?

I think a lot of our younger pitchers have stepped up to fill some roles of the older pitchers we lost from last year. Pitching will be good as always. Then we brought in a lot of new hitters as well and I think our bats will be different. I’m really excited to see, one through nine, we’ll be able to swing it well, even guys on our bench. We have a lot of hitting depth this year.

2. After a couple of seasons of almost getting over that hump and into a championship, is there a feeling of maybe some “unfinished business” this time around?

100 percent. I think this year we definitely have a bit of a chip on our shoulder. We felt like we had the talent last year but things just didn’t go our way. I think this year is a new year.

3. On a personal level, you’re coming off a solid first season in the CCBC. How are you looking to improve upon that heading into this spring?

Just kind of keep doing my thing, you know. Have a higher expectation for myself, for sure, but just take it game-by-game-by-game and keep doing what I’m doing and trust myself.

4. Do you have any goals or expectations of yourself going into the season?

Nothing too crazy, no. Just get the job done when I need to. When I’m called upon or if I’m in a big situation, just focus on it.

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5. Not everyone’s going to the championship weekend this season with the new rules. Does that change your mindsets at all and how do you make sure you’re one of the six going?

I think just emphasizing that we can’t get away from our game and don’t worry about the minor failures that come about in the game or if a game doesn’t go our way. We just can’t blow it out of proportion, just keep our heads down, trust our processes. Don’t beat ourselves up mentally is a big thing, especially when these games start to have more leverage in the regular season.

6. When you look back on your entire baseball career, do you have a favourite moment or memory where you had to take a step back and go, “Okay, this is pretty cool”?

Definitely, I would say there’s been a couple. My first CCBC hit was definitely a big one in UFV last year. That was cool to hit a double there. Then I got a couple of innings in for the Riverhawks and that was just insane. Getting to play in front of 8,000 people or whatever it was … it was a lot to take in, but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

7. What would it mean to you to bring a championship to Edmonton this spring?

Oh, it would be amazing. We think about it a lot. We’ve been talking on the bus about it, just things we would do like get tattoos or whatever it might be. I feel like we have such a tight-knit group this year and we all just want it so bad. If we can get that first one for this program – we feel like we’ve come a long way as a program – I think the cherry on top would be getting that first ring.