The third annual Maurice Beauregard 3-Pitch Ball and horseshoe Tournament was held in Campbell’s Bay over the weekend, in memory of the former Campbell’s Bay mayor, councillor and firefighter, who passed away three years ago after a battle with cancer.
This year’s tournament once again filled the town’s ball diamond, with 16 softball teams signing up to compete in two separate divisions over the course of the three-day tournament.
“If I had three ballparks, we would have the three ball fields full all weekend long,” said Kelly McMahon-Beauregard, the wife of the late Maurice Beauregard, who chose the last full weekend of May – the couple’s anniversary weekend – as the annual time for the tournament in honour of his legacy.
“My husband was a big community advocate, a big leader within the community and he loved people [ . . . ] For him, the center of our town was the ballpark,” she said.
“We got all seasons this weekend,” said McMahon-Beauregard, noting the weekend’s unpredictable weather, while watching Sunday’s semi-final game between the Corriveau family team, the defending recreational division champions, and Moe’s Pockets, a team of Beauregard’s close family and friends.
The Pockets now have younger players too, explained McMahon-Beauregard, who are the children of the original team.
“It’s really cool because they saw their parents play, now they are too,” she said.
This is true for Kim Lesage, a close friend of Beauregard who now plays on Moe’s Pockets alongside her two children Charlie and Levi Sauriol.
Lesage shared an anecdote about how Beauregard would stop by her home to check in on how renovations were going.
“But his hands were always in his pockets,” she laughed, adding how he was really just there to chat anyways.
This year, the team Fully Loaded stole first from last year’s champion team, Kruger’s, in the open division. The Corriveau family team won the recreational league for the second year in a row.
Over in the horseshoe pits, defending champions Chris Sauriol and James Ostrom took first prize once again.
Each year, money raised from the tournament funds three $500 scholarships for graduating students at each high school in the Pontiac.
The students are chosen by their school based on their leadership and community involvement throughout their highschool studies.
“My husband was a big volunteer throughout the community. He used to always say, ‘Nothing happens without the volunteers and without the people that are at the front lines,” McMahon-Beauregard said. “These awards are granted to students who embody his spirit in terms of his leadership and sense of community.”
Some of the money raised is also donated to the municipality for the improvement and maintenance of the park, named in honor of Maurice.
