April 20, 2026

Bats Stay Hot In Home Opener As Hawks Take Three From TRU

EDMONTON, AB- For the first time in 2026, the Edmonton Collegiate Hawks enjoyed home cooking during the regular season. Five weeks into the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Conference season, the Hawks played at home. They took three of four CCBC tilts with the visiting Thompson Rivers University WolfPack at REMAX Field. The Hawks improved to 12-8 on the season after beating the WolfPack Friday (Apr 17) 10-0, swept TRU Saturday (Apr 18) 6-5 and 11-3. Thompson Rivers beat Edmonton Sunday (Apr 19) 6-2 to move to 8-14 on the year. SERIES SUMMARY: Game 1-Friday, April 17- Edmonton Collegiate Hawks 10 TRU WolfPack 0 (8 innings)at RE/MAX Field: The Hawks celebrated their home opener for 2026 in fine style as they scored 10 runs on 11 hits while committing one error. #32 Logan Colville picked up his third win of the season as he started and tossed eight hit ball over seven innings. He struck out two and walked two batters. Offensively, #4 Carson Friesen was 2 for 3 with five runs batted in. He launched a two run homer to right field with none out in the bottom of the seventh inning. That was Friesen’s fourth dinger of the season. #55 Caedyn Colford was 1 for 3 with two runs batted in and a run scored. #21 Kolbe Blackburn went 2 for 4 with a run scored. #51 Issac Edwards took the loss for TRU and fell to 1 and 3. He pitched five innings, giving up five runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking two. Game 2-Saturday, April 18-Edmonton Collegiate Hawks 6 TRU WolfPack 5 at RE/MAX Field: Edmonton scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and withstood a late rally by the WolfPack to win by a run. The Hawks scored six runs on eight hits. TRU had five runs on 16 hits. #49 Micah Gibb won his first of the season. He tossed two and two thirds innings of two run, five hit ball. He had four strikeouts and one walk. #12 Riley Starko came on to earn his fourth save. The Vermillion, Alberta resident pitched two innings of two hit baseball-striking out four. Offensively, Edmonton was led by #11 Lucas Geisler with two runs batted in. He was 0 for 1. #47 Jake Tanner was 2 for 3 with one RBI. Colford was 1 for 4 with two RBI with a double to centerfield in that first inning. Blackburn scored two runs while going 0 for 2 at the dish. TRU was led by #17 Jared Sucro who went 3 for4 with a run scored. Game 3-Saturday, April 18- Edmonton Collegiate Hawks 11 TRU WolfPack 3 at RE/MAX Field: The Collegiate Hawks rallied from a 3-1 second inning deficit to score 10 unanswered runs en route to the Saturday ‘sweep’. Edmonton had a season high 18 hits in the contest. # 16 Jace Daku was 4 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. Tanner went 1 for 4 with two runs batted in. Friesen wound up going 2 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. # 24 Jake Roggensack was 2 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. #50 Lucas Webber-Kitching started and won the game for the Hawks. He evened his season record at 2 and 2 giving up three runs on five hits, striking out seven and walking three through seven innings. #26 Donovan Collier was the losing pitcher for the WolfPack. He is now 0 and 3 going five innings surrendering nine hits, five runs, striking out three and walking two. Game 4-Sunday, April 19-Edmonton TRU at RE/MAX Field: The WolfPack got all the runs they needed in the first inning as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead. They got some solid pitching from their ace #41 Keith Manby. Manby went six innings, giving up two runs on three hits, walking four and striking out two. They were led offensively by Sucro who was 3 for 4 with a run scored. # 12 Kai Scheck was 1 for 5 with two runs batted in. #25 Nick Backstrom started and went four and two third innings, taking the loss. He’s now 0-4 on the year. On this day, he surrendered five runs on seven hits, with four strikeouts and three walks. Friesen was the top player offensively for Edmonton. He was 1 for 3 with two RBI. COMMENTS FROM COACH JAKE LANFERMAN: “We swung it really well the whole weekend. Pitchers did what we wanted them to do. Obviously, we would have wanted the sweep. We played good baseball the whole way through. We had some hard hit balls today (Sunday) which could have gone our way-but they didn’t. Overall, it was a very strong weekend.” Was there any nerves for the home opener? “I think we were more excited than nervous. We were happy we didn’t have to travel and the taxing it does to the body. It was nice to be home, to be set.” On the Hawks ability to hit and score runs. “We have a really solid approach. We have a lot of guys on the bench that can contribute. It is not just nine guys. We are really deep in that area. They have been doing a great job keeping the ball rolling and giving our pitchers some momentum. When we score early, we can hold onto leads. It’s been a lot of fun.” NEXT UP FOR THE COLLEGIATE HAWKS: The Hawks will make their final road trip of the 2026 Canadian Collegiate Baseball Conference regular season next weekend. They will visit the first place Okanagan College Coyotes at Elks Stadium in Kelowna, BC. The teams will play a single game Friday (April 24th), a doubleheader on Saturday (April 25th) with a final game set for Sunday (April 27th). Okanagan College has won 10 of 15 meetings with Edmonton. In 2025, the teams met in Edmonton with The Coyotes taking three of four. They met May 5th and 6th. The teams split the first doubleheader (OC winning 4-2, the Collegiate Hawks 1-0). The Coyotes took the second twin bill (3-0 and 8-6). The teams met last in Kelowna in 2024 where OC won three of the four games: The Coyotes swept the first doubleheader (7-3 and 8-4). The Collegiate Hawks won the first game of the second doubleheader (6-4) but fell 8-7 in the last game. “We are going to have our hands full with OC,” stated Lanferman. Okanagan College leads the CCBC with 14 wins in their first 16 starts. Edmonton will then close out the regular campaign with 12 straight at RE/MAX Field.