SPORTS FLASHBACK 1983: Pacers win bronze at Jr. fastball nationals

The Steinbach A&W Pacers made good use of their second straight opportunity to represent Manitoba in the junior men’s national fastball championship, moving up the ladder to third place from their seventh-place finish of a year ago.

The Pacers travelled to Summerside, PEI and after a full week of competition, had a 6-2 record, with only Nova Scotia and Ontario proving to be better teams.

The Pacers opened play in the national championships with an extra-inning 4-1 win over Prince Edward Island, scoring three runs in the top of the eighth inning.

Steinbach then ran their record to 2-0, with a 10-inning victory over Alberta, highlighted by Randy Dutiaume’s solo home run that sent the game into extra innings. Jacques Levesque scored the winning run in that game, when he singled to lead off the 10th inning.

A 2-0 shutout over New Brunswick gave Steinbach a 3-0 record in round-robin play. In that game, Bouchard faced only 22 New Brunswick batters, as he held that team to a single infield hit.

The Pacers suffered their first setback in round-robin play, when Nova Scotia scored three unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning to defeat Steinbach 4-1. Guy Phaneuf started the game for the Pacers, and the score was tied at 1-1, when Bouchard took over in the sixth.

The three wins and one loss in their division of round-robin play assured Steinbach of a spot in the playoff robin and a four-way tie behind the front-running Ontario and Newfoundland teams who went through the round-robin undefeated.

The Pacers got back on the winning track in the playoff round, when they eliminated Alberta 1-0, knocked off Newfoundland 5-1, and Saskatchewan 7-1, before running into Ontario and losing 1-0.

Against Newfoundland, Steinbach got all their runs in the sixth inning. They also got all four of their hits that inning for the 5-1 win. Bouchard helped his own cause with a two-run homer and Levesque added a two RBI double.

The Pacers followed with a dozen hits in a game against Saskatchewan to post the highest number of hits in one game in the nationals. Bouchard went three for four at the place in the 7-1 win and designated hitter Harry Schlamp had a pair of hits.

The Pacers reached the end of the road against Ontario, when they were unable to get a single hit off Reg Martin. The team stranded five baserunners in the contest, while Ontario turned four hits off Bouchard into a 1-0 victory.

Ontario went on to hand Nova Scotia its first loss of the playoff round by a 2-0 count before the Halifax team recovered to win the deciding game 1-0 for their third straight Canadian junior men’s fastball title.

Nova Scotia’s pitcher and the Pacers’ Greg Bouchard were named the most valuable players in the tournament. Bouchard also was named the top pitcher, as he did not give up an earned run in the final five games.

In all, the Pacers’ pitching staff of Gryba, Phaneuf and Bouchard only gave up a single earned run in the eight games the team played.