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Fort McMurray, Alberta – In one half of the 2022 Divisional Series, matched the top two teams in the Farmer’s League this season after both teams finished with at least 110 wins. Fort Mac won the division, for the first time in franchise history, by 3 games over Calgary, who won the Wild Card, for their first time since 2009, by 7 games over the Kelowna Americans.
Calgary came into the series after a record setting offensive season; the team set new league records in hits (1871), total bases (3195), RBI (919) and runs (1022). The four leaders of the team Jason Goff, Kris Plank, Pat Leclaire and Charlie Jennings dominated the leader boards all year round and it is certain that one of them will be accepting the award as League MVP once the postseason concludes. The bats were never a problem for Calgary heading into 2022, the loss of Jeseni Bartholomay, Bear Hall, Jonah Lauw and Bumpus Wensloff to retirement this offseason was supposed to cripple Calgary’s pitching staff. However, Stefan Campos and Bruce Peoples led the way with 20 win season’s for the Remparts.
The Roughnecks finished tied for the CBL lead with 113 wins on the season and had a remarkable year both batting and pitching. The team was led by 25 game winners Paul Manis and Larry “Aqua Man” Aquilino, along with 24 game winner Hamish Beard and the rest of the pitching staff, they combined for the 3rd lowest ERA in the Farmers League. Offensively, the team had 7 players with 30+ Home Runs and 90+ RBI; Mike Camphor, Ed Gibson, Sean Chambers, Angus Yant, Darryl Curtis, Mike Dickison and Japanese fan favorite Taira Matsumoto.
For the Fort Mac Roughnecks, playing in the post season is something rather new. The franchise has not made it to the post season since way back in 2001. There were only 4 players on the team that have ever played into October; Lyle Nap, Landen Berganza, Red Reccius and Scott Harris. For the rest of the team, this was all something new, even to the manager. Prior to the series Roughneck Manager Chris Wilke was quoted as asking “How do the playoffs work?” Wilke added “Yeah, I was pretty embarrassed that the quote leaked out to the media and made for a lot of ridicule in local taverns across the country. But looking back at it now, that’s fine if they want to ridicule me, we just played and beat a hell of a ball club and I am really proud of the guys here”.
The ignorance of the manager did not seem to deter the team as the Roughnecks went on to sweep the Remparts in three games, winning the first two in Calgary by scores of 12-2 and 8-0 before finishing off the series at home 1-0 Friday night. For ace righty Paul Manis, he didn’t think that his manager could have said anything better before the series began. “I think that the ridicule that coach (Wilks) went through leading up to the series actually helped us. For the most part, this was our first time playing in the playoffs and we had some butterflies. All that we heard heading into the series was how good the Remparts batters were and that we were too inexperienced for a series like this. Coach took the heat off of us and directed it to himself. I know for myself, Cortez and Aqua Man we wanted to prove that he made the right choices when he drafted us as high as he did and show the rest of the league that we are for real. Hopefully, this is just the start!”
The Fort McMurray Roughnecks have advanced to the CBL Farmer’s League Final where they will play the Regina Pirates who upset the Victoria Islanders in a 3-game sweep of their own. Other than being the League Final, the series is also significant for Wilks as Regina is his hometown and where he spends his offseason. “Oh, I am sure that I will have to fork out a lot of cash to buy quite a few tickets for family and friends when we go down there on the weekend, hey if we win, I’ll buy the drinks too.”
When asked if he had any other postseason questions or comments that may loosen up his team or ignite a fire this time around Wilks replied “No, I think I know how this works now. We get to go out and play ball against the city that rhymes with fun”.
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