A 6’4” 200 lb. right-handed pitcher, Connor Russell is in his third year at Vancouver Island University (VIU) in Nanaimo.  Russell hails from Victoria and played his minor baseball at Allenby Park in Victoria (American Little League and Carnarvon Minor Baseball) and then moved on to play for the Victoria Mariners, where he was a teammate of Austin Russell (no relation).  In that season with the Mariners, Russell had a 7-3 record and 2.61 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 63 innings of work.  In the 2011 spring season with VIU Russell posted a 3.09 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 43 innings pitched and started the semi final game in a 9-4 win over the Okanagan Coyotes at the Canadian Collegiate Baseball National Championships.  In his second year with VIU, Russell continued to improve, breaking school records in a number of categories including innings pitched (77), strikeouts (76) and ERA (0.90). The past two summers, Russell has pitched for the Okotoks Dawgs in the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) under head coach Brandon Newell (former Milwaukee Brewers scout) where he has amassed a 12-0 record, with a 1.88 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched (3rd best in the league) in 2011.