By IAN WILSON
There’s nowhere to go but up for the Swift Current 57’s.
After posting a 10-45 record in the Western Canadian Baseball League in 2025, the team found itself at the bottom of both the East Division standings and the overall WCBL standings.
The 57’s have a proud history that includes seven league championships since 2000, but the franchise has not been truly competitive for nearly a decade.
Fans, coaches and management in Swift Current hope to see a turnaround this summer.
With a new coaching staff and an expanded roster in place, the 57’s will seek a push for playoff contention.
“We want to be aggressive on the bases … you want to be a complete team, you want to be able to hit home runs, bunt, steal bags, and play good defence,” said head coach Jared Franklin in an interview with WCBL content host Clark Munroe.
“The name of the game is pitching, so if you can pitch, you can compete in any game. That’s the secret. I don’t know if it’s a big secret but the game is pitching.”
Let’s examine the roster and see what ingredients are in place to pursue the postseason this summer.
BATTING
Local catcher Rydell Adair returns for a fourth season with his hometown 57’s. Following three years of getting in a few games with the team, the lefty batter took a big step forward in 2025. Adair played 48 WCBL games and recorded 16 runs, 15 RBI and 34 hits with Swift Current last year. In 34 games with Arkansas State University Mid-South, the sophomore batted .290 with 25 RBI and 20 runs.
Joining Adair behind the plate are Carson Bussell and Jude Pacheco. Bussell has played 67 games at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, where he has a .249 batting average, 28 RBI and 11 doubles. Pacheco is a native of Bedford, Texas attending Pacific University in Oregon. In addition to serving as a backstop, the sophomore has worked in a couple of outings for the Boxers as a relief pitcher.
Newcomers Malachi Jaramillo and Keagan Knowler are expected to split first base duties. Jaramillo is a sophomore from Rio Rancho, New Mexico who is attending Southeastern University, while Knowler joins the 57’s out of Tecumseh, Ontario. He has committed to play at Roane State Community College.
Cohen Jorgensen is another Canadian infielder on the roster. The Beaumont, Alberta product studied at Badlands Academy before attending Arkansas State University Mid-South alongside Adair. In 41 games, he hit .252 with 19 runs, 18 RBI and nine stolen bases.
Jake Hiromoto is expected to suit up at second base or third base in Swift Current. The Honolulu, Hawaii native is a freshman at the University of San Francisco.
There are plenty of shortstop options available on the roster.
Anthony Hector has been plucking balls out of the infield for Cerro Coso Community College. Through 26 games with the Coyotes, Hector batted .322 with a .444 on-base percentage, 23 runs and 17 RBI.
Jake Steffes is a native of Katy, Texas coming off his junior season at East Texas Baptist University, and Zac Clow is a 6-foot-2 freshman at Mount St. Joe University. The Ohio product has 28 RBI, 17 runs and a .250 batting average for the Lions this year. Clow has also made three relief appearances as a pitcher.
Cohen Murray is a Saskatchewan shortstop who is on the roster as a high-school aged affiliate player. He has committed to suit up for Indian Hills Community College.
Rounding out the infield options is utility player Jake Roggensack. Hailing from Wainwright, Alberta, the lefty slugger has suited up for the Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks in the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) for the last three years. In 68 games, the NAIT student has a .278 batting average, 30 RBI and 49 runs.
Local lad Hudson Unger is expected back with 57’s this summer. After getting into six games with his hometown team in 2025, the Arkansas State University Mid-South student could take on a bigger role as an outfielder this year. In 36 games with the Greyhounds, Unger posted a .319 batting average, 19 RBI, 30 runs, five home runs and seven stolen bases.
Fresh faces in the outfield will include Keaton Dickie, Chance Crawford, Lucas Geisler and Adam Rowland.
Dickie is a Calgarian who is studying at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. In 31 games with the Spartans as a freshman, he is batting .272 with 19 runs.
Crawford, a sophomore from Bryan, Texas, is teammates with Steffes at East Texas Baptist University, while Geisler suited up for a pair of games with the Regina Red Sox in 2023. The left-handed batter from Saskatchewan has 18 hits, 18 runs and 14 RBI in CCBC play with the Edmonton Collegiate Riverhawks.
Rowland joins the team out of the Calgary Bucks baseball program. The junior at Montana State University Billings is hitting .313, with 21 runs in 31 games.
Affiliate player Deacon Kriger is also signed on for the 2026 season. The Yorkton Regional High School student has committed to play for Valley City State University.
PITCHING
Considering the 57’s have Koufax on their pitching staff, they should be in great shape this summer.
OK, it’s not THAT Koufax … but Swift Current expects to get some quality innings out of Koufax Cranmer nonetheless. The 5-foot-10 righthander from Nevada has worked 29-plus innings out of the bullpen at Dominican University this season, going 2-0 with a 4.30 earned run average (ERA), one save, and 16 strikeouts. Cranmer is familiar with the WCBL after pitching in 11 games with the Fort McMurray Giants in 2025.
Kyrell Adair will be a battery mate of his brother, Rydell, when he takes the mound at Mitchell Field. Kyrell pitched in one game with the 57’s in 2024, followed by another two outings for Swift Current last season. The Trinidad State College reliever will look for even more WCBL innings in 2026.
Max Noto is back for a second season with Swift Current. The Montana native, who attends Assumption University, got into seven games with the 57’s in 2025 and made three starts. Noto had nine strikeouts in 20-plus innings.
Calgarian Logan Hammer is coming off his sophomore season at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, where he appeared in 14 games and made three starts this year while producing 28 strikeouts in 29.1 innings.
Wenatchee Valley College will send a pair of arms north of the border, including 5-foot-9 freshman Tanner DeLaRosa out of Havre, Montana, and Mill Creek, Washington sophomore Cole Benjamin.
Another Havre native on the roster is Brody Nanini, a 6-foot-3 pitcher who is studying business administration at Montana State University Billings.
Maximus Bayne is a Badlands Academy grad who is now pitching at Arkansas State University Mid-South, where he is teammates with a number of current 57’s players.
Right-handed moundsman Riley Bestor joins the squad out of Feather River College, which is located in Quincy, California.
Zach deSylva is a 6-foot-2 sophomore at Mount St. Joseph University, where he has logged 71-plus innings and made 22 appearances over the last two years. He has registered a 4-3 record, 4.67 ERA and 46 strikeouts while being used primarily as a relief pitcher.
Sammy Chow is a 6-foot-1 righthander from Lethbridge, Alberta who is attending Missouri Valley College, while another new addition is Nathan Innes, a Torontonian in his freshman season at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
At Cerro Coso Community College, righty reliever Ian Rasmussen has put in 10 innings of work over 12 games this season and is a K-per-inning pitcher. He’ll look to rack up more strikeouts against WCBL opponents this summer.
A.J. Arruda, a Pacific University Oregon pupil, will also look to eat up some innings for Swift Current this year.
Affiliate pitchers on the roster include Zen Taylor-Bell, Keegan Kristmanson and Jace Johnson. Kristmanson made two relief appearances for the 57’s last season and allowed no runs while registering two strikeouts in 2.2 innings.
COACHING
When it came time to find a new head coach for the 57’s in Swift Current, the team called on Harv Martinez for help.
The legendary skipper from the days when the club played in the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL), the predecessor of the WCBL, was happy to lend a hand.
“Harv was great,” said 57’s President Jamie LeBlanc in an interview with Swift Current Online.
“He came in and helped with the interview process.”
The result was the hiring of Jared Franklin as the new head coach and general manager of the club.
“His extensive experience, leadership, and dedication to developing players on and off the field align perfectly with our vision. Jared’s passion for community engagement and his focus on building a championship-calibre culture will help us continue growing as both a team and a cornerstone of the Swift Current community,” stated LeBlanc in a news release.
The 57’s had the worst record in the WCBL in 2025, going 10-45 under head coach Ruddy Estrella.
Franklin, an assistant coach with the Yorkton Cardinals in the WMBL in 2011, is hoping to turn the page on those last-place results.
“Recruiting successfully is having the contacts … but then also, when we do get those guys that they have a good experience and they go back to their universities and say, man, that was awesome, send more guys up there. Hopefully with some of my connections, I can get some of those guys right away with that,” said Franklin during an October press conference.
Franklin has decades of coaching experience, including a recent tenure as the head coach at the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, where he helped launch a new baseball program in 2022. He has been running baseball camps in Saskatchewan for several years, as well.
“My hope is that I’d like to see some consistency with this position,” said LeBlanc.
“We were very fortunate for 20-plus years to have Harv and then for 10 or 12 years to have Joe (Carnahan). It feels like every year after that, we’ve kind of just been, a new guy, a new guy, a new guy. I ultimately hope that this works out and Jared likes it where he works out well for the program, and this is our next long-term coach.”
Joining Franklin on the coaching staff are Devin Sawyer, who will look after the team’s pitchers, and hitting coach Austin Dickens. Sawyer is an assistant coach at Great Bay Community College in New Hampshire, while Dickens is an assistant coach at South Garner High School in North Carolina.
Home Ballpark: Mitchell Field
Home Opener: 7:05 p.m., Thursday, May 28th vs. Moose Jaw Miller Express
2025 Regular Season Results: 6th place in East Division with 10 wins & 45 losses
2025 Playoff Results: Did not qualify
WCBL Championships: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2017
Tales of Baseball 