Charleswood boy shines on baseball diamond

Baseball rookies invaded Canwest Park earlier this month as part of the provincial Honda Hit, Run and Throw Competition.

Luc Laurin from Charleswood was the lone Winnipegger to end up with a gold medal from among more than 150 competitors in four age categories. The other gold medalists hailed from Dauphin, Brandon, Killarny and Minnedosa.

Laurin, who will turn seven in two weeks, advanced from the South Winnipeg regional Hit, Run and Thrown event, where he also placed first overall.

“I beat everybody in my region. I won it. Then I went to the Goldeyes (field) and played and whoever won got a Goldeyes' ticket,” Laurin said.

The Hit, Run and Throw event is a skills competition that invites participants to do its name suggests. The top three from each region then advance to provincials.

Laurin says he favours playing first base and catcher. In addition to baseball, he also swims and plays hockey, tennis, and golf.

Laurin’s mom, Shari Ceaser-Laurin, said her son was the lone Charleswood representative at the competition.

“He was the very, very first boy to go,” she says. “At the beginning of the day they called Luc Laurin. But he was ready.”

Second in line was another young boy that Laurin had met in the regional competition, Justin Scott.

Laurin and Scott placed first and second respectively in the regional competition, which sparked a friendship between the two when they met again at provincials.

“He came in second. He was as good as me,” Laurin said of Scott.

Scott’s father Jason said there was a lot of good competition at Canwest Park.

“It was really long, about four hours,” he recalled. “ They got talking and that kind a kid stuff.”

As they waited for the final results, the two new friends began joking that they were going to place first and second once again.

“They went first and second in the line-up the whole time. We were waiting for the results and the kids came over and joked that Luc was going to get first and Justin was gonna get second again,” Jason Scott said.

And to the parents’ surprise, their boys were right. While Laurin won the event, Scott was once again only a few points back of him.

After winning, the boys got to head down to the field where they received their prizes from Goldeyes’ players Max Poulin and Fehlandt Lentini.