Matt Wilkinson is used to representing the red-and-white.

After years of playing for Dawgs Academy and the Okotoks Dawgs summer collegiate squad, the left-handed pitcher is taking his love of those colours to the next level.

Wilkinson - who goes by the nickname "Tugboat" - has been selected to Team Canada's roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March.

The White Rock, B.C. native has had a sterling baseball career. 

He pitched for the Okotoks Dawgs in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) from 2019 to 2023. In that time, Wilkinson went 6-3 with five saves in 22 games - half of them starts - and racked up 121 strikeouts through 71-plus innings. He was also a member of three WCBL championship teams in Okotoks.

The 6-foot-1 southpaw was a 10th-round pick of the Cleveland Guardians in the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) amateur draft.

In his three minor-league seasons, Wilkinson has a 12-15 record, a 2.98 earned run average (ERA) and 294 strikeouts in 223.2 innings as a starting pitcher. Tugboat helped steer the High-A Lake County Captains to a Midwest League championship title in 2024. That same year, he was honoured by the Canadian Baseball Network (CBN) as the winner of the Wayne Norton Award, which is handed out annually to the top Canadian minor-league pitcher. Keith Law of The Athletic also named Wilkinson as his Pitcher of the Year in the minors.

“He’s just got an absolute killer mentality on the mound. It’s predator versus prey and he is the apex predator," said Dawgs Academy coach Jeff Duda of Wilkinson in an interview with Kevin Glew of CBN.

“Matt has always had a little chip on his shoulder .... You know PTW – Prove Them Wrong. He’s just got that mindset."

Joe Sergent, the pitching coach with the summer collegiate Dawgs, also spoke glowingly of Wilkinson in a 2024 interview with Alberta Dugout Stories.

"He's finally getting to show the world and show all of minor-league baseball what we've been seeing up her in Okotoks and in Canada since he was a 12- or 13-year-old," said Sergent.

“It’s just the way the ball comes out of his hand – we call it the ‘Invisi-ball' ... he’s got a certain run and life on his fastball that you don’t see in regular pitchers. There’s just another gear that comes out of his hand.”

Added Sergent: “Just the sheer optics of it – it’s just another level with that fastball that comes out of his hand ... if you could ever see it, if you see it live, it’s like art or poetry. That’s the best way I could describe it.”

This will not be Wilkinson's first time representing Canada. He struck out 16 batters over five scoreless innings against Mexico at the Little League World Series in 2015.

“That was cool. As a 12-year-old, it was kind of like heaven,” Wilkinson told CBN.

“If you were a baseball fan that was one of your dreams when you were growing up.” 

Wilkinson will continue to chase his dreams with Team Canada at the WBC, which takes place from March 5-17 in San Juan, Houston, Tokyo and Miami. Canada's opening game takes place on March 7th against Colombia in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

NOTES ... Another former member of the Okotoks Dawgs, Jordan Procyshen, will serve as a bullpen catcher for Team Canada at the WBC. Procyshen is now the bench coach for the Triple-A Reno Aces, an affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks ... Ryan Johnson, a long-time pitcher with the Weyburn Beavers, is on the Czechia roster for the 2026 WBC. The 6-foot-5 lefty from Winnipeg, Manitoba was a starting pitcher for the Beavers from 2013 to 2018. In his 41 starts and 239-plus innings in the WCBL, Johnson had 23 wins, 253 Ks and a 3.64 ERA. He has been a two-way player for the Trebic Nuclears in the Czech Republic since 2021.