By Jacques Lanciault

Quebec’s Mr. Baseball

It’s not every day that five Quebec baseball players find themselves involved in the same game in the United States.

It was, however, the case on Sunday in Edmond in Oklahoma when the Cowley College Tigers faced the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) Golden Norse.

With Cowley College, we found Félix-Antoine Chénier-Rondeau and Olivier Morin-Larocque, who are two former NEO members, back in the game after a one-season absence due to injuries.

On the Golden Norse of NEO, we found Émile Boies, Édouard Savoie and Mathieu Vallée.

When “play ball” was called out, four of the players listed above were in the lineups. Chénier-Rondeau patrolled right field for Cowley, while in the NEO camp, Savoie was behind the plate, Boies played second base and Vallée was the centre fielder.

From the Quebecois quintet, Chénier-Rondeau (Blainville, Que.) stole the show … and twice rather than once … First, in the third inning, in his second at bat of the game, he celebrated his return to NJCAA by clubbing his first career NJCAA Division 1 home run. It was a three-run shot that propelled his team to an 8-4 lead.

After walking and crossing plate a second time in the game, the 6-foot-2 outfielder again went deep to lead off the sixth inning. Chénier-Rondeau finished the game with four RBIs in a 20-9 victory.

In the first game of the day, a 31-9 win for Cowley, Chénier-Rondeau singled as a pinch hitter.

In the end, the Academy Baseball Canada alum finished 2-for-3 with a single, two homers, a walk, three runs and four RBIs.

Among the Quebecers of the NEO troop, Boies (Levis, Que.) was the only one to record a hit. He went 1-for-3 record with a walk and a run.

Savoie (Saint Eustache, Que.) was limited to one walk in three appearances, while Vallée (Saint-Joseph-Du-Lac, Que.) had two walks in five appearances. He also stole a base and scored once.