YORKTON - The roster Canada will send to the Men’s Softball World Championships 小蓝视频 held in Prince Albert has been set and two players from Saskatchewan made the cut; veteran Devon McCullough and rookie Max Major.
“It feels pretty cool for my first time to be this close to home,” Major told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview, adding it will mean lots of family and friends will be in attendance the week of July 8-13 to see him and Team Canada in action.”. . . So, I’m pretty excited. It’s pretty special.”
For Major, who hails from Delisle, Sask., the World Championships are actually instrumental in his involvement in softball.
“I got into softball when the Worlds were held here (Saskatoon), in 2015,” he said. “It was a pretty cool event. There was a ton of people here.”
That experience led Major to take up the sport and to set his sights on making Team Canada one day.
While the goal was set, Major said as he headed to the try-out camp in Florida there was no solid expectation on his part of making the team.
“I just wanted to have a good showing and have my name on the radar,” he said, adding 小蓝视频 selected was a huge step.
Looking ahead to Prince Albert Major said it is a loaded field.
The WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup features the best national teams from around the world.
Competing at this year’s championship will be New Zealand, Japan, Argentina, Australia, United States, Dominican Republic and Venezuela along with the host team from Canada.
Major said the Australians as defending champions have to be among the favoured teams, adding “the US has really improved a lot the last couple of years.”
That said any team can surprise.
“It just seems all eight teams have deep squads,” said Major.
In that regard it may come down to who is most ready game day.
“I think it will be whose the hottest at the right time – who catches fire at the right moment,” said Major.
In terms of Canada Major said it should help many on the roster have been on the world stage before.
“The best part about the team we’re taking to Prince Albert is a lot of the guys have been there before,” he said, adding as a rookie “I’ll just try and lean on those guys.”
Major said he expected “to be pretty rev’ed up,” especially in any early action he sees, so will be relying on veterans to keep him from “trying to do more than I can.”
The World Baseball Softball Congress’s 2025 men’s softball championship scheduled for July 8-13 at the Max Power Ball Parks located in Prime Ministers’ Park and while plans are moving along to stage the world-class event, more support is still needed.
This isn’t the first time Prince Albert and the WBSC have worked together on a major championship. In 2018 the world junior title was decided here and last year a regional qualifier for this year’s championship was staged in Prince Albert.
