Elliott: Son of former Leafs draft making a name in South Carolina -- what could be finer?

“Blue Jays scout Austin Wells was sitting in Hugo Marchand’s house in Charleston, S.C.

It was a routine, pre-draft meeting that scouts make to the home of the top prospects each year. Wells was asking questions to Hugo and his son, shortstop Taj Marchand, when all of a sudden the scout stopped mid-sentence. The Jays Atlanta Metropolitan area scout asked, “Wait a second ... where are you from?” according to Marchand.

“Montreal,” Hugo said, “I’m a proud Canadian. My parents are still in Montreal, I used to take part of the summer off to go home until baseball took over.”

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SandlotsBob Elliott
Fitzpatrick: HRSTC hoping to rep Manitoba at Road to Okotoks

Despite the upcoming Road to Okotoks only holding regional qualifiers in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C., the other provinces won’t go without a representative in the tournament.

Making the trip from Manitoba to the Ontario regional qualifiers is the Home Run Sports Training Centre (HRSTC) team out of Winnipeg. The training centre, which is the only indoor training space specialized for baseball in the city, will feature a 19U team which will compete at the tournament.

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