Team Canada's Alli Schroder chases adrenaline highs on the baseball field and fighting wildfires in B.C.

Baseball season is "one adrenaline high to the next" for Team Canada's Alli Schroder.

Schroder is in Thunder Bay, Ont., this week for the 2023 Women's Baseball World Cup Qualifiers, taking the field at third base, pitcher and designated hitter for the national squad.

Through the team's first three games, she's been a key part of the team's offence, scoring two runs in Team Canada's 22-3 win over Hong Kong. However, she was kept scoreless in two at-bats during Canada's 23-0 loss to the United States on Thursday night.

Overall, as of Thursday, Schroder is batting .286 during the qualifiers, with two hits in seven at-bats, one RBI, and three runs scored; she also has a perfect 0.00 ERA after two innings pitched.

And when she's not playing ball, Schroder, from Fruitvale, B.C., is suiting up for the B.C. Wildfire Service, helping fight forest fires in her home province.

"You get a rush when you go into a big wildfire, and I get a rush when I get put into a big game," Schroder told CBC News in a recent interview. "It's just kind of chasing the next adrenaline rush."

And this fire season is a tough one in BC, like it is across Canada, Schroder said.

"We're having a record-breaking season," she said. "I think it's now the worst season on record in BC. We've been going since May, and probably gonna be going til October," she said. 

This summer has been the worst wildfire season in Canadian history by several metrics, according to federal officials. More than 3,000 fires have been recorded, consuming more than 8.8 million hectares, displacing almost 5,000 people across Canada. 

British Columbia has seen some of the biggest fires in Canada this summer, and it hasn't slowed down in August. Temperatures are still in the high 30s as roughly 400 fires continue to burn in the province, with 200 considered out-of-control, according to the latest update from B.C. fire officials. 

The fires this season have been intense, displaying behaviour the crews having seen before, Schroder said.

"A lot more rank six wildfires that are just destroying our forests," she said. "We've been really lucky infrastructure-wise. We're at four deployments now, and we're only halfway through the season," Schroder said. "It's a lot of accumulative fatigue."

But Schroder said she still finds time to practice, even when she's on duty in the B.C. woods.

"It's more or less bringing a baseball glove and some J-Bands to a fire camp and finding a fence," she said. "I have one ball and I'll throw it against a fence to mimic long toss."