Making it to the big leagues and playing under the lights of the great baseball parks of our time with thousands watching on is a lofty goal, admits Tyler Koslowsky.

But it's what the Abbotsford Cardinal and Mennonite Educational Institute standout dreams about just about all the time.

"My ultimate goal in life is to play professional baseball, but I've been trying to figure this out in my head for a while now about whether it's a realistic dream," said Koslowsky, a devout Christian.

Perhaps a better insight into his potential as a ball player came from Doug Mathieson, head coach and GM of arguably the Cardinals biggest BCPBL rival, the Langley Blaze.

"[Mathieson] told me that if I really push myself I might have a chance," said Koslowsky.

"He said I'm a solid ball player, but that I still have to work hard and work at the fundamentals of the game and I can move on to the pro level, so I have to figure that out in my mind."

Aside from his faith, Koslowsky has long since admired Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton's past includes both drug and alcohol addiction, but the Rangers slugger has changed his ways, and not only is he now a model baseball player, he's also a model citizen.

"I really respect him," said Koslowsky, "I've had guys on my team make fun of what he did in the past, calling him a 'crackhead,' but you see him now and he does seminars with young kids telling them to stay away from that stuff."

There is no doubt Koslowsky has many options when it comes to finding inspiration. But nothing emphasized his desire to play in The Show more than a trip to the Canada Cup, presented by Baseball Canada, with U-17 B.C. team last month in Saskatchewan.

Koslowsky, known as 'Kozzie' by his teammates, was the only Cardinal player selected to Team B.C., and what a trip it was.

"It was an awesome experience," said the 16-year-old, who registered a grade point average of 3.86 as a Grade 11 last year.

"It was just a bunch of good guys and they're all good ball players so it was a great time."

While actually playing ball was fun, nothing hit Koslowsky harder than when he first showed up at the ballpark and saw four rows of grandstands packed with college and pro baseball scouts.

"Usually you look back and you see the announcer at Delair [Park], but this time you see hundreds of scouts with notebooks and radar guns," Koslowsky said. "There's a lot of nerves and a lot of tension."

But he credits a seminar with a scout from Oregon last year with helping him deal with the butterflies.

"Scouts want to see what you can do when you fail, so you always want to have a positive mindset. They want to see you have fun."

It's a mindset Koslowsky said he faithfully believes will take him to bigger and better things in baseball, as well as life.

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