Public Works Staff, Volunteers Rally to Save Baseball Tournament

PORT HAWKESBURY - A town councillor who is also the organizers of a provincial baseball tournament says he was nearly ready to cancel the entire three-day event, after heavy rains blanketed the Dan WIllie MacDonald Memorial Ball Park the night before the Labour Day weekend was set to begin.

Jason Aucoin, who manages the Strait Area Sting Under-15 Tier 2 "A" baseball team, was hoping to welcome other clubs from Stewiacke, Hammonds Plains and Oxford to Port Hawkesbury as the Sting hosted the division's provincial championships on the first weekend of September. However, after the first round of downpours on the evening of Thursday, September 2, Aucoin and a team of 20 Port Hawkesbury Public Works staff and community volunteers took to the field but struggled to make it dry and usable once again.

"I can honestly say that, on Thursday evening at 7:45 p.m., I was ready to cancel the whole weekend," Aucoin told reporters following this month's regular meeting of Port Hawkesbury Town Council, at which he thanked all those that had worked to make the tournament a success despite such adversity at the beginning of the weekend.

"But Thursday evening, we hand-bailed well over 1,200 litres of water off the field. Friday morning, a group of volunteers were working bright and early, and Public Works was moving soil in for us. And the Recreation Department was there, helping us spread soil and drain the field and line the field and repair the field."

With this community effort and the assistance of another 40 volunteers who helped with the tournament's general operation, game play started on schedule early Friday afternoon, with the Nova Scotia Under-15 Tier 2 "A" Baseball Provincials holding their opening ceremonies shortly before 5 p.m. and playing all of their scheduled games through the following 48 hours. 

"We had over 100 spectators - on Saturday afternoon I looked over at the old arena [grounds], and I saw the parking lot full of cars - it kind of reminded me of a Junior 'B' hockey game from 25 years ago," Aucoin beamed.