Hockey and baseball.

Bradley Schoonbaert has enjoyed memorable seasons on the ice and on the ball diamond.

The 20-year-old Brandon product helped the Steinbach Pistons capture the Turnbull Trophy and the Anavet Cup this past spring and he also won back-to-back Western Canada Junior AAA Baseball Championships with the Brandon Marlins in the summer of 2016 and 2017.

"It was a long hockey season but it was definitely worth it," reminisced Schoonbaert shortly after the Marlins split their doubleheader with the Pembina Valley Orioles on Tuesday night in Morden. "Anytime you can play hockey in the middle of May, you know you've had a good season. I missed quite a bit of ball. I was pretty rusty to start obviously but got back into the swing of things."

Schoonbaert put his cleats on for the first time this ball season on Saturday, May 26th when Brandon played a twinbill against the St. Boniface Legionaires at Whittier Park in Winnipeg.

"It was nice to see the guys again," Schoonbaert said. "I hadn't seen them in a long time. That day at Whittier I think I made three errors in two games. It was a tough one but it was great to be back on the ball diamond."

Schoonbaert recorded 36 goals and 55 assists in 59 regular season games and added 17 points in the Pistons playoff run during his final season in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

"It was awesome - especially being a 20-year-old," said Schoonbaert. "That's how you want to go out. It's every Junior A hockey players dream to go to the RBC Cup and to get there is pretty surreal. Once we got there we just ran out of gas. It was a good run and I'll remember that forever."

Schoonbaert and the Marlins won their first Western Canada Junior AAA Baseball Championship in Weyburn in August of 2016.

Brandon was the host team last August and successfully defended it's title.

"Last year was really special," noted Schoonbaert. "We really had to work for it. We were playing a really good St. James team. That was probably the best ball team I've been on. That final game against St. James - that was pretty good ball. To come out on top in front of 350 people at Andrews Field, it was pretty cool."

With the final year of his junior baseball career winding down, the next chapter of Schoonbaert's hockey career begins this fall when he joins the University of Calgary Dinos.

"That's going to be fun. It's going to be a big jump from Junior A. There's a lot of WHL players I'm going to be playing against. Just going to try and get bigger, faster and stronger here in the off-season. I'm especially excited to meet some new guys and create some new bonds. It's going to be fun. I'm really looking forward to it."