Richmond City Baseball will be part of Baseball B.C.’s U18 College Prep Division in 2017.
The ground work leading up to the successful application began with Richmond’s U18 AAA team enjoying a competitive 2016 campaign. The team finished with a 23-17 regular season record, then just failed to advance to the medal round at the provincials which took place in late July at Latrace Field. The program also fielded a Fall Ball team that competed in a year-end tournament with some of the best U18 teams in the province and came away as tournament champions in a well-played final against Ridge Meadows at Latrace field.
“The College Prep program has been on the radar of Richmond City Baseball since it was discussed in 2015 and presented for its inaugural season this past year,” said RCBA president John Braaten. “RCBA spent the year planning and developing a vision for this high performance league prior to applying. I have the utmost confidence in our programming and membership to succeed at the highest level.”
RCBA’s U18 program is wrapping up its first phase of Winter Training with over 20 participants. After the holiday season, the second phase of Winter Training continues which will lead into the team’s inaugural Spring Training trip to Mazatlán over spring break in March.
Head Coach Raul Verde Rios is already in the planning stages for scheduling training, games and cultural exchange.
“For RCBA, this presents an exciting new challenge and learning experience for our players. We want to provide the opportunity to stay in Richmond if they want to play at a higher level in preparation to possibly move on to college baseball.,” added Braaten. “With the commitment and vision of our membership and volunteers this has been made possible. We are looking forward to 2017 and beyond.”
