Bryce Fraser: On Pitch
Bryce Fraser is a starting pitcher for the Lethbridge Bulls. He opened against the Okotoks Dawgs Black team in a game that would see the Bulls pick up their 2nd win in 3 games to close out the Heritage Day long weekend. Fraser tells us that following the win he feels, “Pretty good. I was happy we won yesterday, coming off the Sylvan loss on Sunday.”
Fraser is currently attending Clark University in Iowa taking a dual major in Sports Management and Psychology. “I’m gonna try and see how far baseball can take me.” Fraser says, “Then either coach, I could try and scout, or something along those ways. I might not use my psychology degree but definitely that could be useful for coaching.”
Fraser sits with one of the team’s lowest ERAs, sitting with a 2.2 on the season. He was happy with his personal play through Monday’s game, getting relieved in the 6th after holding the opponents to off for much of the game.“I was just trying to make every pitch count. I made two mistakes, one that wound up with the base hit up the middle. I loved the way my defense played behind me. We wouldn’t have won otherwise. Other than that I was pretty happy, having everything going on the offense and everything else that got us a win was pretty perfect.”
Looking at the game overall, Fraser adds, “I think we started off with not enough energy, but as the game progressed from the 5th inning on we felt confident we were going to beat these guys. Nobody doubted that and it was a high. It was good to have that.”
Fraser lives in Lethbridge and has been a product of southern Alberta’s baseball programs. “I started baseball at 13, pretty late,” he tells us. “I always had a good arm - everyone told me so at least. I went to Vauxhall for grade 11 and 12, then Colby for 2 years, Southeastern for a year and Clark this year.” Baseball has created some good academic opportunities for Fraser, but he looks back at one game in particular stands out as being the highlight of his career - so far. “Getting to play against the Detroit Tigers at Southeastern.” He says without hesitation. “Getting the chance to play major league hitters and see what I could do. I got 2 strikeouts and a broken bat.” Fraser hopes to have more experiences with the major league players as his academic career wraps up.
For the remainder of this season with the Bulls, Fraser and the team are tied for 2nd place in the standings and are making a good case for a berth in the playoffs. “I think we just need to stay positive.” Fraser says looking forward. “Everyone knows their role now. We’re all just starting to get comfortable and play every game like its our last. We’ve shown we can beat everyone so I don’t know why we’d let ourselves down and play at the same level as some of the teams we’re beating. We have to stay high and stay playing our game.”
As we wrap up, Fraser tells us that he wants to recognize the contributions of coach Les MacTavish from Vauxhall and Ryan Carter at Colby for having had big impacts on his career. “Those two guys definitely.” He says, “They definitely helped me out.”
The Bulls are on the road this week, headed up to Okotoks on Wednesday before returning for one of their 3 remaining home games on Saturday, August 8th.
For all of our game photos from the game, head on over to: https://www.lethbridgesportsphotos.ca/p24337644