Hunter Beauregard of Campbell’s Bay and Cade Kuehl of Shawville played for Team Quebec at the U20 national fast-pitch softball championships in Carp, Ont. over the weekend, finishing the tournament with a bronze medal.
This was the teens’ second consecutive year competing in the tournament, after finishing in fifth place last year.
This year’s championships saw nine teams from as far as Saskatchewan and Newfoundland face off over the weekend, first in a preliminary round and then a playoff round.
Team Quebec finished the preliminary rounds tied for sixth place, which was the final spot for contention in the playoff round. The team then had to play a tiebreaker against Newfoundland to secure its spot in the playoffs, which it did with ease, shutting them out 3-0.
Pontiac High School teacher and local softball advocate Matt Greer said the team really turned on the jets to bring themselves back into contention.
“They made a great run on Saturday,” he said.
Starting with the victory over Newfoundland, Team Quebec won three consecutive games, including a huge win against Nova Scotia.
Hunter Beauregard, who played third base and shortstop for Quebec, said his team turned it on for that game.
“It was a really big game for us, because they had the top pitcher,” said Beauregard. “We faced him and we put up a couple runs on him. Everyone was fired up.”
Quebec’s run came to an end against the tournament’s eventual champions, the Plattsville Lightning.
The game needed an extra inning to determine a victor, with Quebec surrendering a single run in the eighth inning to lose the game.
“It came down right to the end. It was definitely a great game,” he said. “If you’re gonna lose to anybody, that’d be it.”
Beauregard was proud of his team’s composure and focus, even when they were on the brink of elimination.
“We had a meeting with our coaches and they said ‘Listen, guys, this isn’t going to be easy. We had the option to take the highway to the championship but now we’re going to have to take the gravel road,’” Beauregard recalled.
He said the speech was effective in inspiring the players to step up their game.
Beauregard said he always enjoys tournaments like these because he meets all kinds of new friends, and also gets to represent his region at a national stage.
“It’s really an honour to represent Campbell’s Bay and the Pontiac,” he said.
“It’s something I’m really proud of and it’s nice to kind of put us on the map.”
Team Quebec was one of the youngest in the tournament, with only three players from this year’s team moving on to the higher age group.
Beauregard intends to improve on their third-place finish next year.
“We definitely felt we could have finished higher than that,” he said. This summer is just the start, and now that we’ve got a taste for a medal we’re definitely going to be going for that gold.”
