SYLVAN LAKE — The Regina Red Sox are the 2025 Western Canadian Baseball League champions.
The Red Sox took a 5-4 victory over the Sylvan Lake Gulls in Game 3 of the championship final on Saturday night in Sylvan Lake, taking a two-games-to-one victory in the best-of-three series.
The seventh inning proved to be the deciding factor in the contest, as Regina overcame a 4-3 deficit with a pair of runs and took a lead that they would never relinquish.
It’s the first championship for Regina since 2012 when they defeated the Medicine Hat Mavericks to claim their second of back-to-back titles.
Here's how the championship-winning moment looked:
The @ReginaRedSox are the 2025 WCBL Champions! pic.twitter.com/6NKpLlRV2H
— The WCBL (@wcbleague) August 17, 2025
“I just feel so happy, I’m so happy for myself, all my teammates, my coaches, all of us,” Regina product and 2025 WCBL Playoffs MVP Brady Bye said on WCBL social media. “It’s just a bunch of joy going through me right now… I grew up watching these games, I remember them winning it when I was a little kid, so it really has a special place in my heart to go out and do this.”
Rafael Jackson would end up with the big hit in the biggest inning of Regina’s season. After Justin Simard led off the frame with a single and Jordan Tucker drew a walk, Jackson would hit a single that would bring home both baserunners with the tying and game-winning runs.
That meant the Red Sox's fate was in the hands of standout reliever Ayden Page, and as has been the case throughout the playoffs, he was absolute money when his team needed him the most.
Sylvan Lake had scored the first run off Page in the postseason and taken their first lead of the game in the sixth inning, but he was lights out the rest of the way, allowing a handful of baserunners but holding the Gulls off the scoresheet.
That included the bottom of the ninth, where a single by MIke Quick and walk to Bryce Turner would get the potential championship-winning run to the plate for Sylvan Lake, but Page would get Simon Baker to fly out to centre field, and the celebration was on.
Regina got off to a great start, with Jackson scoring on a single Bye for a 1-0 lead out of the opening inning.
Bye then knocked home Zayd Brannigan with Regina’s second run in the third inning and Ian Montz would score on a wild pitch in the same frame for a 3-0 Red Sox lead.
Sylvan Lake’s bats came alive in the fifth when Simon Baker, Brock Tijerina and Quick all scored runs to tie things up at three.
Kyle Lewis then knocked home Ayden Makarus in the sixth with the go-ahead run for the Gulls, setting up Jackson’s seventh-inning heroics.
Chris Spry started on the mound for Regina and allowed three runs over four innings of work before giving way to Page.
Matthew McKenzie got the start for Sylvan Lake and gave up three runs on five hits over six innings before handing over to Leeroy Taverez, who gave up the two runs without getting an out in the seventh. Garrett Lundmark finished things off, pitching three shutout innings.
Fox ended up going 3-for-4 at the plate, Simard also had a pair of hits for Regina.
Lewis was 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Gulls.
Sylvan Lake had taken a 3-2 win over the Red Sox in Regina in Game 1 on Thursday, but the Red Sox rebounded for a 10-7 win in Game 2 to set up Saturday’s winner-take-all showdown.
“It’s been an absolute rollercoaster, Bye said. “That’s a good team over there, it’s been up-and-down the whole series and the nerves were going the whole time, but now all I can feel is excitement.”
Regina dedicated the win to hometown product Jesse Lubiniecki, who died in a car accident while returning from college to join the Red Sox earlier this summer.
