Greg Mercer, Record staff

KITCHENER — Zach Johnson’s baseball resume has more unpredictable turns than a well-pitched knuckleball.

The Cranbrook, B.C.-native played college ball in California, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, suited up in Virginia, the Okotoks and Medicine Hat, played winter baseball in Puerto Rico and then with the Rockingham Rams in Australia.

The past three seasons, he’s played in front of European crowds as part of the Baseball-Bundesliga in Germany, where he was most recently traded to a team in the Netherlands.

So, yeah, the outfielder’s route to the Kitchener Panthers this summer has been a bit of a whirlwind.

“What’s really cool is the style of baseball everywhere is a little bit different,” he said. “You can see little pieces that are kind of unique to the area.”

Johnson, hitting .302 in 13 games since arriving earlier this month, is due back to his European team after the Intercounty Baseball League season wraps up. While he’s here, he hopes to help end the Panthers’ 17-year championship drought.

“Once we’re done hopefully winning the championship here, I’ll head back,” he said. “But I came here to win a championship.”

The left-fielder was signed by Scott Ballantyne, Panthers’ director of player recruitment, who coached Johnson’s former roommate Jeff Hunt when he played at Laurier.

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