The Royal Road to Nationals
Spring time is here in Fredericton. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, leaving only crushed beer cans on the side of the road. In a small gym on the north side, you can hear the sweet sound of the ball squaring up with the bat.
Photo: Matthew Daigle
Spring training underway, and a new season of Fredericton Royals baseball is about to begin. In just one month, the Royals will be back opening day at Royals Field in Marysville.
Despite losing to in the provincial finals, The Royals are representing New Brunswick in Nationals 2019. The provincial champions, the Chatham Ironmen will be hosting nationals in Miramichi.
Fredericton baseball on the national stage is nothing new. At nationals, the Royals won three of the last five bronze medals, and won silver in 2017. They have yet to win gold.
Royals president and former player Jody Peterson said they bolstered the roster with fresh faces to get over the hump.
“We’re down to the last four years pretty much every year, we’re always a game or two short,” said Jody Peterson, Royals president and played 20 years for the club. “With those four guys, plus Colby Lyle, Shawn Reid and Sam Morehouse, we got a really strong group around.”
For years, hitting has been the key to the Royals success. Big bats like David Barr and Corey Wood use the long ball to drive the offense.
One contributor to last year’s provincial loss was a shorthanded pitching staff, having only two or three starters. This year, the Royals picked up three pitchers to balance the roster. Pitchers including Jay Johnson who played for Canada in the World Championships and highly ranked pitcher, Shane Kraemer.
Peterson believes the added pitchers, along with their local talent, will put them over the top.
“I think this year, we’re a little more balanced than in previous years, so we’ll see how it plays out,” said Peterson. “We’re hoping to have the arms to go with our bats and we can go from third or second to that top level.”
Spring training is a time to get back into rhythm before opening day. From pitching defence, to double play drills, coaches and players are taking the ‘practice how you play’ phrase to heart.
One of the biggest advantages of spring training is the shaking off that winter rust. Head Coach, Mike Lint is looking to get players indoors, and get the snow out of their minds.
“It’s hard for guys to think about baseball when there’s three feet of snow still on the ground in April,” said Royals head coach Mike Lint coaching his ninth season with Fredericton. “When we come in here, the guys are doing their regular routines. They’ll do a little bit of running, a little bit of stretching, do their throwing, some soft toss work, live BP (batting practice) in the cage.”
This summer, the Senior Nationals will be in New Brunswick. The host team is Fredericton’s archrival, the Chatham Ironmen.
The Ironmen defeated the Royals in six games to win provincials. From multiple finals matchups, to all out brawls, these New Brunswick powerhouses have been bitter rivals for decades.
Competitiveness, passion and punches aside, the hatred between on the field so they can hit the pubs together after the game.
Along with pitching woes, the Royals high-powered offence went ice cold. Second basemen, Devon Boutilier’s looking to start off strong this season after his playoff slump last year.
“I know personally, I think I had like one hit in 30 at-bats last year in the playoffs, a couple of our guys struggled to. It was the perfect storm,” said Boutilier. “You have to tip your hat to Chatham, they came out and they played a good series and they won.”
