A former Okotoks Dawg is in Arizona after being drafted to the Milwaukee Brewers last week.

Tristan Peters was selected in the seventh round, 207th overall.

"It was unreal. It was kind of shocking too because I really didn't expect it to be the Brewers, especially that early. We had a whole draft board drawn up, and it didn't show that they had an interest until the second or third day, which would have been rounds 11 through 20. It was a good surprise, anyway."

Across the 60 games from his first season with the Southern Illinois Salukis, Peters landed six home runs, with an RBI of 55.

Still, he wasn't totally satisfied with his performance.

"I mean, I obviously did pretty well, but I was trying to hit a few more home runs this spring, but that didn't happen. But baseball is a difficult sport, so I can't get too down on that."

Clearly, someone was impressed.

He's in Arizona for spring training, but it was a bit of a process getting there.

Being a Canadian, Peters had to go through a five-day quarantine before flying out, plus the usual visa paperwork.

Peters was with the Dawgs for two years, including during their 2019 championship win.

He was even their 2019 playoff MVP.

He has fond memories of his time at Seaman Stadium.

"It was awesome, I loved that team. That was a lot of fun, and it was super cool. It was my first summer collegiate team I got to play for and we absolutely killed it. We had some really good players."

Those memories came flooding back last week when Peters heard from several figures from his athletic past.

"I've heard from a lot of the coaches there. They all congratulated me. They've done so much for me.

"I think Tyler Hollick, he's probably had the biggest impact on me in probably my whole baseball career. He taught me probably the most out of everybody that's coached me, and there's been a lot of coaches. Not to undermine their contributions because they've done a lot too. It's just insane how many people have helped me to get to this point."

 

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