The Saskatoon Berries are Western Canadian Baseball League champions after their 11-1 win against the Sylvan Lake Gulls on Sunday evening. “Crazy. Just the feeling of winning it all and just doing it with a great group of guys, and seeing so many people, I’ve had so many people text me congratulating me on the big win and so many people from Saskatoon to just congratulating me,” Berries pitcher Wesley Shackelford told CTV News. “So seeing the city behind everybody was amazing.” In front of a packed crowd at the Berries’ Cairns Field, the team hoisted the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy for the first time in their brief franchise history. Shackleford shared that dispute the team being founded in 2024, the organization feels like a well established one. “Everybody from top to bottom, making sure everything runs smooth ... I think the team is going to just continue to climb here over the next few years,” Shackelford said, adding the strong fanbase was something he didn’t expect when he first joined the franchise this year. “I was definitely shocked. My first day up here just seeing all the people, it was definitely a surreal experience, especially in the postseason,” he noted. “See how many people would show up to the games, breaking the attendance record, 2,500 people is definitely the most amount of fans I’ve ever played in front of, and they were awesome from start to finish this season, just showing up every day,” Shackelford said. The Berries went 38-18 during the regular season, and saw impressive turnouts during home games, with Cairns field even adding more than 300 new seats directly behind home plate. In addition to his new title of WCBL champion, Shackleford was named Postseason MVP on Sunday night thanks to his 14 strikeouts, and zero runs in nine innings. “It’s definitely an incredible feeling. But we had so many other guys that could have got that honour as well. But just getting that honour was, definitely a surreal feeling. But I couldn’t have done it without my teammates, and without the coaches,” Shackelford said. While Sunday’s big win has quickly been cemented as a special memory in Shackelford’s mind, he shared that there were many special moments throughout the season that he will miss. “I think I must say, my first wiener Wednesday with the team that was first wiener Wednesday wearing the wiener Wednesday jerseys. Those are my favorite uniforms I’ve ever worn,” Shackelford recalled. As he heads back to Odessa College in his home state of Texas, Shackelford shared that he is still focused on achieving his next set of goals after checking this big one off the list. “Staying with the mentality of never being satisfied and always knowing that there’s something more out there that you can accomplish, and just looking, looking for the next step, always. It was obviously good to win last night and do it for the city, but you just got to continue to build on that and use that as fuel,” Shackelford said. As he and many of his teammates head across North America for the start of the college baseball season, Shackelford expressed hope that he hasn’t seen the last of Saskatoon. “It’s a very quick turnaround just to get things going again down there, but I’m excited, sad to leave the city of Saskatoon,” he noted. “It’s treated me so well. So, hopefully I might come back here next summer, we’ll see.”
