Wilson: WCBL championship means “absolute world” to Red Sox playoff MVP Bye
Regina Red Sox Brady Bye (Regina, Sask.) at the plate during the WCBL Championship Series at Gulls Field. Photo: Ian Wilson
*This article was originally published on Saskatchewan Dugout Stories on August 20. You can read it here.
August 23, 2025
By Ian Wilson
Saskatchewan Dugout Stories
When he wasn’t getting it done with his bat, catcher Brady Bye was getting it done on the field with the Regina Red Sox pitching staff.
The home-grown talent, a student at Point University, was a consistent and steadying presence on the team heading into the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) postseason.
During the regular season – his third in the league – Bye posted a .333 batting average, 39 runs batted in (RBIs) and 35 runs in 45 games. His nine home runs were also tops on the team. The strong season earned him a spot on the East Division roster at the WCBL All-Star Game at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks, where he also represented the Red Sox in the Home Run Derby.
“It meant a lot just because last summer was a bit of a different story for me. So I’ve had to work really hard to be able to improve and see a better result. When I stepped foot in there, it’s just a reflection of what you put into it and you’re finally getting something out of it. It was awesome,” said Bye of his WCBL All-Star Game experience in an interview earlier this summer.
The backstop reflected on what was working at the plate and at Currie Field, the home of the Red Sox.
“I’ve honestly just been showing up every day and putting an eye on the barrel of my bat. Just trying to poke it in the eye and I’ve just had that mindset all summer. It seems to be working so I’m just rolling with it,” said Bye.
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Listen to Saskatchewan Dugout Stories interview Brady Bye here.
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“This is my home and I grew up here, so I just always try to show up with a good attitude. The fans and everyone is really good to me and my teammates, we have a good group of guys. So it’s pretty cool to show up and be able to play what we love and have fun at the same time. Everyone’s kind of just hanging out, the fans are getting into it and giving you kudos and stuff, too. It’s hard not to show up with a smile on your face every day.”
After being swept by the Moose Jaw Miller Express in the opening round of the 2024 playoffs, Bye said he and his teammates were eager to rebound this year.
“We know we have the talent in the room. We’re not too worried about the regular season right now, but once we hit playoff time, it means business. We have some stuff left over from last year and we know that it’s unfinished from last season so we need to pick it up,” he said.
“We have a lot of character. We have a lot of guys that are ride-or-die for our teammates and stuff like that. I think when it comes down to the line, that will give us the upper hand in a playoff situation.”
When Bye and his teammates finished the regular season, the Red Sox were in third place in the East Division with a 29-27 record.
But they were dealing with an exodus of talent that included top innings eaters Blake Johnson, Colton Anderson, Kai Langford, Calvin Shepherd, David Hankins and Holden Hungerford. Heavy hitters Jackson Syring and Jalen Seward also left before the playoffs started.
Manager Rye Pothakos brought in new recruits for the stretch run and they contributed immediately, helping the Red Sox to a 7-3 record in their final 10 games.
Belief in the group really took off when Regina won back-to-back close games against the league-leading Saskatoon Berries near the end of the season. It was the only time all summer that the Berries – who set a single-season wins record with a 46-9 record – lost consecutive games. The first victory, a 7-6 triumph at Currie Field in extra innings, saw outfielder Rafael Jackson belt a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th after Regina fell behind by a run. The second win at NexGen Patch at Cairns Field was a complete game effort from starting pitcher Chris Spry that saw the Red Sox prevail 4-2.
THE CATCHER IN THE BYE
Bye and the Red Sox rolled into the first round as the underdogs against the second-seeded Medicine Hat Mavericks.
The Martin Academy graduate collected four hits, four RBIs and two runs in nine at bats as Regina swept the Mavs in two games by scores of 6-2 and 13-7.
“I think the last seven games of the year we started to really figure things out and then we had a really good first series against Med Hat and from there we just kept rolling with that momentum,” said Bye.
The Red Sox faced their provincial rivals, the Saskatoon Berries, in the East Division Final. While he was working with a pitching staff that was starting to surprise postseason opponents, Bye went 5-for-14 in the series with four RBIs and a run scored as the Red Sox upset the Berries in a hotly contested three-game series that saw Regina outscore Saskatoon 18-17. Three of his RBIs came in the decisive third game during a 6-2 win in Saskatoon.
The Sylvan Lake Gulls made it to the championship final by defeating their nemesis, the Okotoks Dawgs, in a two-game sweep. For a third straight series, the Red Sox were underdogs.
After dropping a marathon 3-2 game to the Gulls in 11 innings at home, Regina traveled to Sylvan Lake for the final two games of the final.
When the Red Sox were down 6-4 in the ninth inning of Game 2, it was Bye who sparked an unlikely comeback. Leading off the inning, the backstop connected on a 2-2 pitch for a double. He was pulled for a pinch runner that would later score as the Red Sox scored six times in the inning and stunned the Gulls with a 10-7 win to extend the series.
During the winner-take-all third game, Bye helped build on Regina’s early lead with a ground out RBI that made it 2-0 Red Sox. The Saskatchewan squad added another run shortly after that to make it 3-0. The Red Sox went on to win 5-4 with Bye behind the dish the entire evening.
“It means the absolute world to me,” said Bye of clinching the WCBL championship.
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Listen to the Saskatchewan Dugout Stories podcast about the 2025 WCBL champion Regina Red Sox here.
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“I’m so happy for all my teammates. We’ve been working really hard and every single person on this field earned this. I think we had a lot of grit. We could’ve shut down earlier in the year but we stayed gritty throughout the whole time and I think grit gave us the upper hand in the playoffs.”
In a post-game interview with Joe McFarland, Bye harkened back to the last time the Red Sox won league titles in 2011 and 2012.
“I remember them winning the championship when I was a little kid so it really means everything to be able to do this with some of my best friends in the world,” he said, adding the Gulls pushed the Red Sox to the limit in the final.
“That was nerve-wracking as heck. That’s a great team over there. I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys. It was a lot of nerves going throughout the whole series, it was awesome.”
Bye was named the WCBL Playoff MVP for his postseason performance, which saw him lead all hitters in RBIs with 10 while posting a .333 batting average over eight games and 36 at bats. Bye picked up a hit in every playoff game during the Red Sox journey to the title, which saw them go undefeated on the road with an overall record of 6-2.
After the championship celebration, the right-handed hitter recognized his fallen teammate, Jesse Lubiniecki, who died in a single-vehicle rollover on his way back to Regina on May 30 at 22 years old.
“I was happy that we could go out there and do it for him. I know he was up there watching us,” said Bye.