On May 11, around 40 people convened at Elwood Dale Park in Shawville to watch some locals take on a team of young prodigies in some high-level fastball action.

For the second year in a row, the Quebec under-23 fastball team visited the region for two exhibition games against the Quyon Flyers and the Micksburg Twins.

The games provided very constant competitive action packed with a ton of hits, diving snags and very few strikeouts.

In the first game of the afternoon, the Quyon Flyers hosted the Provincial team in what was a tight game until things got a little out of hand. After two home runs off the bat of team Quebec outfielder Joey Simard, including a moonshot out in left-centre field that left no one doubting where the ball was going to end up, the lead became unsurmountable.

When it was all over, the Quebec U23’s won by a score of 7-2.

The second game featured the Micksburg Twins who throttled the Flyers en route to a 7-0 shutout.

In the third and final matchup, the Quebec U23 team was set to face off against the Twins in a battle that would decide who would remain undefeated in their respective double-headers.

In a hard-fought battle over seven innings, it was the boys from Micksburg who came out on top with a commanding 4-0 win, finishing the day with no runs allowed over 14 innings of play.

Despite being shut out in one of his team’s games, Quebec U23’s head coach Jean-Yves Doucet was very satisfied with his players’ overall performance, praising their presence at the plate against top quality pitching.

“I liked the way we performed,” he said. “We only had two strikeouts in the first game and at bat we asked of our guys to make contact and on defense we didn’t make a lot of errors. I liked the way our guys reacted, considering we did a four and half-hour drive before playing.”

For Flyers pitcher and Shawville Men’s fastpitch coordinator Matt Greer, the opportunity to play against the provincial team is a great way to promote the game to local youth and get them interested in participating in the sport.

“It exposes people to more fastball and lets them know that there is ball beyond the Pontiac,” he said. “When we see these young kids who are 18 to 23 years old, you know that there is an opportunity to play outside of just minor ball here in town. The hope is to continue to do this kind of stuff and maybe some of the young kids can push to strive to do that.”

According to Doucet, the exhibition games against high-level fastball squads from the region are a great way to get his team ready for the season. With great pitchers, batters and fielders to play against, he feels like the caliber of play is the ideal to get his team prepared for the upcoming season.

Having played his junior years with locals Joe McCleary and Greer, Doucet said he enjoys coming out to the region for some good action on the diamond whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“We love coming to this region,” he said. “It’s always fun. Joe [McCleary] and Matt [Greer] do really good work here for local fastball.”

On May 11, around 40 people convened at Elwood Dale Park in Shawville to watch some locals take the Quebec Under-23 fastball team. Pictured, Team Quebec pitcher Gabriel Désilets hurls one towards the plate in his team’s matchup against the Quyon Flyers.

J-D Potié, The Equity Twins Pitcher Adam Ruckwald prepares to throw a pitch against the Flyers.

Twins shortstop Andrew McIntyre hits a high pop up versus the Flyers.

Flyers pitcher Matthew Greer gets set for a pitch.

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