2026 RURAL ROOTS BASEBALL CLASSIC: CARNDUFF, SASKATCHEWAN

The Western Canadian Baseball League is recognizing its baseball roots in Carnduff, Saskatchewan.

The agricultural town in southeast Saskatchewan has been selected as the host of the second annual Rural Roots Baseball Classic, which will take place on Friday, May 29th at Carnduff Ball Park.

Highlighting the event will be a regular-season game between the Saskatoon Berries and the Weyburn Beavers, with first pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in the town of 1,150 people.

“We are very excited for the second ever Rural Roots Baseball Classic. This is our version of Major League Baseball’s Field of Dreams game,” said WCBL President Kevin Kvame.

“We will move this game around each year to a historical baseball location in our footprint and put on a regular-season WCBL game with two of our franchises. We were thrilled to kick this off in Oyen, Alberta last year and we cannot wait to show off our league to Carnduff in 2026.”

TEAM TIES

The Saskatoon Berries are linked to Carnduff through one of their biggest star players, Carter Beck. The lefty slugger, who was raised in Carnduff, has suited up in 106 games for the Berries over two years, including 12 playoff contests. In that time, the outfielder has a .400 batting average, 121 runs, 25 doubles, 24 home runs, 96 RBI and 36 stolen bases over 435 at bats. He was named the WCBL Rookie of the Year, Most Outstanding Canadian and All-Star Game MVP in 2024, as well as a WCBL First Team All-Star in both 2024 and 2025.

“This means a lot. I think it is super cool that Carnduff has been granted this opportunity. It will really be the first time the far southeast corner has an opportunity to watch some WCBL action. I think it will open some eyes of kids to what baseball can look like and what you can do with it. So, I am super excited that Carnduff will host this game, and I know that it will be run very well,” said Carter.

“Carnduff has a beautiful ball complex with four smaller diamonds and one full‑size baseball diamond, and it’s been really cool to see how much the game has grown since I was a kid.”

Carter’s father, Blair Beck, has been a long-time baseball coach. He was the head coach of the15U boys Ray Carter Cup team from Saskatchewan that competed in Summerside, Prince Edward Island in 2025. He was also named the Baseball Sask Coach of the Year award winner in 2021.

“Obviously, with Carter and the success he's had in the WCBL, it means a lot to our community. And people are very invested in the WCBL because of the success he's had,” said Blair.

“It's such a unique event. We don't get opportunities like this in small towns very often … it just means so much more to everybody to be able just to go out and go to the diamonds locally and to see that quality … to have them at our diamond and get a chance to show off our diamond in our town, we're just super excited.”

Trent Dorrance of Alameda has coached alongside Blair Beck with several Saskatchewan teams. He is the head coach of the Southeast Twins 18U AAA baseball team in Estevan and a director for the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League (SPBL). His son, Tyren, represented the Weyburn Beavers for a number of years. The outfielder took the field in 69 games with the Beavers from 2022 through 2025.

Several other players from the Carnduff area have also played for the Beavers recently, including Carlyle products Chase and Mitch Himmelspach and Oxbow native Dax Brown. Derek Wallace, also from Oxbow, played several seasons for Weyburn and was an assistant coach with the Beavers in 2013.

BASEBALL HISTORY IN CARNDUFF

Carnduff – which takes its name from the first postmaster in the area, John Carnduff – was incorporated as a town in 1905 and baseball has been a part of the community’s fabric since the very beginning. A group of senior ball players from Carnduff won the Souris Valley League championship in 1909 and a Thunder Creek squad from the area operated as a nine-man team in 1910. By 1913, parked cars would crowd around diamonds, where spectators could partake in the baseball action from the comfort of their vehicles.

Carnduff’s involvement in the Saskota Baseball League – a senior men’s circuit based in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba – also extends back for over a century. In 2003, the Astros became the most recent Carnduff iteration in the league and they captured a championship at the Jack Harbourne Memorial Tournament in 2019.

The community is supported by baseball infrastructure that received a major overhaul in the 1990s. Landscaping for the Carnduff Ball Park began in 1992 and five diamonds were completed as part of that project by 1996. The facilities are considered to be among the best in Saskatchewan and have played host to several provincial softball and baseball championship events.

The Carnduff Southeast Steelers are one of the most successful women’s fast-pitch softball programs in Canada. The Steelers became the first Saskatchewan-based team to win three consecutive Canadian Women’s A Softball Championships with titles from 2023 to 2025.

Carnduff remains an active hub for minor baseball of all ages, as well as a home to softball for girls in the area.

ABOUT THE RURAL ROOTS BASEBALL CLASSIC

Baseball has lived on the Canadian Prairies for well over a century. The sport is a regular and beloved feature of our summers. The seeds for a field of dreams were planted in Western Canada long before they grew in the hearts of baseball fans around the world.

It is more than a game. Baseball is a feeling. It is a vibe. It offers a soundtrack to our sun-soaked days outside. The bounty from this magical harvest can be found in the 12-team Western Canadian Baseball League, which offers Alberta and Saskatchewan the nation's highest level of summer collegiate baseball.

The WCBL is proud to present the Rural Roots Baseball Classic to our fans. The annual event is a celebration of the towns and cities that served as pioneers for the game.

Prairie communities offered humble beginnings to baseball in the form of dirt diamonds and gopher-hole-punched outfields. They welcomed barnstorming baseball stars to town to dazzle and inspire the locals, who responded by embracing every aspect of the game. The players accepted the assignment of getting their uniforms dirty, their throwing arms strong, their swings fast, and their grins wide. They learned the fundamentals and hard work was rewarded, both in life and at the ballpark. Today, we can look back proudly at what these communities did to elevate baseball. We can bear witness to the growth of the game and the towns. We can also peer to the horizon and smile as we squint to see the outline of a bat over a shoulder and a small dot racing skyward as a gloved form darts towards it below. This is baseball as it was originally created, while becoming not only America’s pastime but Canada’s as well. Simple. Beautiful. Timeless. Welcome home, to the Rural Roots Baseball Classic!

TICKET INFO

Tickets for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic will be available through the Weyburn Beavers website.

2025 RURAL ROOTS BASEBALL CLASSIC: OYEN, ALBERTA

The Western Canadian Baseball League is returning to its roots.

With the inaugural Rural Roots Baseball Classic, the WCBL will pay homage to its history and championship spirit.

The highlight of the weekend will be a regular-season game between the Lethbridge Bulls and Sylvan Lake Gulls at Doug Lehman Field in Oyen, Alberta. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8th.

Oyen was selected as the first host of the Rural Roots Baseball Classic - which is set to become an annual tradition - in celebration of the Oyen Pronghorns championship season in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League (SMBL) in 1995.

"We are very excited for the Rural Roots Baseball Classic. This is our version of Major League Baseball's Field of Dreams game that they hold in Iowa," said WCBL President Kevin Kvame.

"We're going to try to move it around each year to a historical baseball location in our footprint and put on a regular-season WCBL game with two of our franchises. We're excited to start in Oyen with a big community festival that will salute the Pronghorns."

The Pronghorns became the first team from Alberta to win a title in the SMBL and opened the door for the Lethbridge Bulls to join the league in 1999, transforming the circuit to the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) in 2002 until it was rebranded into the current WCBL in 2018. The Pronghorns helped elevate the league into a two-province entity that represented the growing baseball communities of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

TEAM TIES

Several ties between the Pronghorns, Bulls and Gulls exist to this day.

Aqil Samuel, the president of the Sylvan Lake Gulls, had the first at bat for the Pronghorns when they joined the SMBL.

"My two summers in Oyen were great. I was still in high school but got a chance to play in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League. Oyen actually became a bit of a second home for me for years, and I still have some great friends in the area. To be part of this league all these years later is pretty special and I can't wait to go back," said Samuel.

"Bringing the Gulls back to Oyen to play the Bulls is going to be fun. Oyen is such a baseball town ... it is going to be a great atmosphere and I know it is going to be well supported by the entire community."

Graham Schetzsle - the founder & CEO of the Gulls - played first base on the 1995 championship team alongside Todd Hubka, who was the first head coach of the Lethbridge Bulls. Hubka continues to coach the Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA) in Lethbridge, which feeds a number of players to the WCBL every year.

Oyen Mayor Doug Jones is a past-president of the WCBL and member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame who helped establish the Badlands Baseball Academy in the town of 900 people. He also helped current WCBL President Kevin Kvame bring the Bulls into the league in 1999.

"We're very excited. It's going to be the first Rural Roots game and we're going back into history with this. We're going to have a great weekend," said Jones.

WEEKEND ACTIVITIES

The game between the Gulls and Bulls will help celebrate the contribution of the Oyen Pronghorns to the WCBL and it will also include a full slate of weekend activities.

Planned events include a golf tournament, youth baseball camp and a 30th reunion of the '95 Pronghorns team. Along with the signature Rural Roots Baseball Classic game between the Gulls and Bulls, many more festivities - which will be announced at a later date - are sure to make Oyen the place to be in early June.

ABOUT THE RURAL ROOTS BASEBALL CLASSIC

The WCBL is proud to present the Rural Roots Baseball Classic to our fans. The annual game - part of a full weekend of festival activities - is a celebration of the towns and cities that served as pioneers for the game. We are thrilled to be coming to a community that represents this history for our inaugural game in Oyen, Alberta. Located beetween Calgary and Saskatoon near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, Oyen is one of these storied baseball towns.

Prairie communities offered humble beginnings to baseball in the form of dirt diamonds and gopher-hole-punched outfields. They welcomed barnstorming baseball stars to town to dazzle and inspire the locals, who responded by embracing every aspect of the game. The players accepted the assignment of getting their uniforms dirty, their throwing arms strong, their swings fast, and their grins wide. They learned the fundamentals, and hard work was rewarded, both in life and at the ballpark. Today, we can look back proudly at what these communities did to elevate baseball. We can bear witness to the growth of the game and the towns. We can also peer to the horizon and smile as we squint to see the outline of a bat over a shoulder and a small dot racing skyward as a gloved form darts toward it below. This is baseball as it was originally created, while becoming not only America's pastime but Canada's as well. Simple. Beautiful. Timeless. Welcome home, to the Rural Roots Baseball Classic!