Lochhead continues to beat the clock

Time will catch up to Andrew Lochhead eventually, but he seems to have a nice head start right now.

The 35-year-old Killarney resident, who was named Baseball Manitoba’s senior player of the year last month after an outstanding season with the Border Baseball League’s Cartwright Twins, said he’s finally understanding the sport in a meaningful way.

“As I’ve gotten older, my game has changed,” Lochhead said. “I feel like my abilities are still there and getting better in certain aspects. My hitting has gotten better. I remember telling Ross Tycoles, who was one of my mentors, that I finally learned how to hit when I was 32.

“He looked me dead in the eye and said ‘I learned at 27.’ These things just all of a sudden click and you learn how to do it and then the game slows down and you can do these things. You’re only worried about being more technical and not just getting the ball in play.

“There are actual technical parts of your swing where once you learn that, you can be fundamentally correct and you can put more backspin on the ball or your contact abilities increase.

“I really found as I got older, my game has improved dramatically and now it’s just about trying to keep up with the young guys who are throwing harder or being faster.”

Lochhead, who played with the provincial team as a teenager, attended Minot State from 2008 to 2012 and played baseball for three of his four years at the school with a who’s-who of Manitoba senior baseball over the last decade, including Mitch Olson, Anthony Friesen, Ryan Shaw, Patrick Vandoorne, Brody Pinkerton, Paul Thompson and Nolan Jago.

Half of the roughly 35-man roster was Canadian, with a heavy Westman contingent that also included Brandonite Cody Nevins.

“It was a lot of fun to go down there to a different country and a whole different atmosphere, even though it’s only two hours away,” Lochhead said. “To have people we grew up playing with was awesome. We still look back at those days and send Snapchats and you still see things pop up on Facebook all the time about this happening so long ago. There are definitely memories you never forget.”

He didn’t play his fourth year because he wanted to graduate early.

After he graduated, he played in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League with the Reston Rockets and later his hometown Killarney Lakers of the Border Baseball League, and soon fell into the role as the chief organizer for the Lakers.

When it became clear after the 2019 season that Killarney was likely not going to have a team, Lochhead had a decision to make on where he was taking his highly coveted services.

The closest teams were the South West Baseball League’s Boissevain Centennials, and the Baldur Regals and Cartwright in the Border Baseball League.

Since he was good friends with the Haight brothers, Drew and Wade, he figured that making the 34-km drive to Cartwright was his best option.

“I had played with them before and they were a similar age,” Lochhead said. “When we were talking about folding, I had a couple of different options to go to that were even relatively close. Glenboro and Baldur were combining at that time and they were really, really young, and then Boissevain was in the other direction and a different league.

“I decided to go with Cartwright because a lot of those guys were a similar age, we all got along through our sporting careers and it just seemed like the natural place for me to go.”

He returned home to Killarney in 2021 but the Lakers folded halfway through the season, and Lochhead has been in Cartwright ever since.

Part of the attraction is that he is no longer counted on as an organizer.

“I liked going there,” the married father of three said. “For starters, I wasn’t in control of anything anymore. Coming from the Killarney Lakers where I had to be in charge of everything and then having kids at that same time, it just got to be a lot. When Killarney folded, I was able to go to Cartwright and be the older veteran support for the team and leave myself on the field.

“I was able to play and help and do everything there, and when it was done, I was able to go home.”

The other part of the equation was the team itself.

“They’re a great group of guys,” Lochhead said. “They’re all 27 to 33 or 34 so they’re a really close-knit group of guys that I just joined into. Being an older one, I earned my respect right away and everyone gets along fantastically. They were a really raw emotional team that just needed a little support and guidance that I was able to bring.”

Since 2022, the team has gone 43-15 in the regular season and 28-14 in the playoffs while winning league titles in 2022 and 2024 and losing in the final in 2023 and 2025.

“We’re definitely a well-rounded team now,” said Lochhead, who is also a frequent pickup for Manitoba’s squad at senior nationals. “As they’re getting older, they’re getting more mature now too.”

In addition, at Baseball Manitoba’s senior provincials, the Twins won the senior AA title in 2022 when Drew Haight’s home run in the first inning stood in a 1-0 victory over the host Rivers Comets, and they fell in the final in 2024 to the West Winnipeg A’s and in 2025 to Boissevain.

His Cartwright teammate Ty Enns was named Baseball Manitoba’s top player in 2022 when Lochhead nominated him after a sensational season at the plate and on the mound. (His former Minot State teammate Olson won the award in 2023.)

Lochhead played virtually everywhere on the field this season, although he stepped back from pitching for the first time and didn’t have to catch.

If you attended a game, you certainly didn’t want to miss his trips to the plate.

In the five seasons he’s played with the Twins, he has posted batting averages of .308, .591, .308, .533 and .618.

“Overall, I feel like since I’ve been 32 and learned how to hit, my game has pretty much peaked at where it’s ever been,” Lochhead said. “I’ve kind of shown that over the last couple of years with my play at provincials and nationals that I feel like I can be at that next level, although I don’t know how long I can stay.”

That led to his provincial recognition. He was one of three Westman residents honoured, with Aaron Tycoles of Rivers being named volunteer of the year and Carson Swaenepoel of Souris winning 13-and-under player of the year.

“It’s definitely a great honour to be recognized and nominated and then to win ultimately,” Lochhead said. He’s not entirely sure what the next few years will bring, although he has a good idea.

Lochhead said there is a chance the Lakers will return one day, noting people have talked to him about it in the last couple of years. But he expects by the time the town’s revitalized minor baseball system graduates players to the senior ranks, it will be too late for him.

He’s decided to retire from national events, but the Twins can count on him for a while yet.

“I keep telling everybody that the league minimum next year is four games in order to make the playoffs, so I will at least have my four games played,” Lochhead said. “Other than that, I think my tank is running empty on the nationals — it just takes a lot out of my body physically and I have three kids now at home so to be gone for eight days in the middle of the year isn’t that easy — but I would like to eventually go and help coach at that level.

“For the local side, I would love to play for a few more years and help them out and go to provincials if we can make it but I’m not relying on myself to be there for every single game anymore in the regular season.

“I want to go for the fun of the game and try to be at the top of the game for the rest of my career because I know it’s going downhill eventually.”

Other than the heavy schedule at nationals, Lochhead said he feels fine after games.

But he did receive a preview of coming attractions recently. Lochhead plays old-timer hockey in Killarney too, and had to suit up in net last week when his team was short.

He had a massage the next day to ward off soreness, but two days later when he woke up, everything hurt.

“It was ‘There it is,’” he said with a chuckle. “I knew it was coming.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com