The Delisle Pride are returning back to Saskatchewan bronze medalists following their performance at the 2022 U23 Men's Canadian Fast Pitch Championship in Carp, Ontario. A pre-weekend recap of the tournament (along with a look at the Unity Panthers) is available through the link provided, as the Pride battled through a few must win games only to come up one game short of a berth in the championship.

The Pride entered the seeding round with a 3-3 record after the round robin. A 14-1 blowout in that game put them up against Newfoundland on Saturday morning in an elimination game. That game would end up 10-3 and set up another win-or-go-home scenario for Delisle later in the day, and they came through in a big way for a 17-6 win against Quebec to leave them as one of the three teams remaining.

Championship Sunday featured the Pride taking on the Owen Sound Selects in the semi-final. A hot, dry day turned into quite the opposite by the top of the third inning, as a downpour of rain forced the teams into a bit of a delay.

The game eventually ended after 6 hours and 16 minutes according to the official tournament Twitter account, as Owen Sound advanced to the final and sent the Pride back home. It wasn't the ending the team wanted, but at least for ten of the players they will get a shot at redemption, sticking around Ontario to play in the Canada Summer Games currently taking place out of Niagara, Ontario.

West Central Online reached out to Manager of the Delisle Pride Wade Harris for his take on the weekend, and he is proud of how his team did just based on the adversity they faced.

One problem faced was that pitchers were forced to adjust to a considerably smaller fence than at home. Routine fly balls back at home were flying over the fence in Ontario, though that was nothing compared to what affected their own offense. For the first couple of days, the Pride literally didn't have their bats:

The Pride certainly won't be a seeking a sponsorship from a certain shipping company come this time next year, and here is Harris with a short description of the ordeal.

"We shipped them last Thursday before we left. Overnight air so that you knew the airline wouldn't lose them on us," he began, "So we ended up using borrowed bats from the community. Fastball players were dropping off bats for us to use."

Even though it was under ridiculous circumstances the team wouldn't use the shipping error as an excuse. Still to that point however, everyone on the team knows just how much little changes such as not having your own equipment can affect a players mind.

"It's just something we had to get used to and adjust to, you know, get out of our mind. Ballplayers, just like hockey players, or anybody else, a lot of it is mental."

Interestingly enough the teams bats arrived, and the scoreboard reflected that early come game time as the Pride hit two home runs in the first inning to get them off to a great start. The offense just had to get going, as Harris is confident the Pride feature the best defensive team in the country.

The group's performance earned them another medal to go along with the U16 and U19 silver they won in 2016 and 2019 respectively. Pretty impressive for a group of small town prairie boys.

"A lot of these boys were playing against each other in squirt ball, which is 11-12 years old. One team was based in Warman, and one was in Delisle, all made-up of kids from small towns. Basically all around Saskatoon," said Harris, "When we got to the U16 level you could start going to nationals. We kind of got together and said if we're going to continue this, the only way we can compete at the national level is by combining. So we decided to go together and form the Delisle Pride."

According to Harris, the team consists of a handful of players from Delisle, a few from Saskatoon, Warman, and Prince Albert, and then the others come from small towns like Maymont, Langham, Vanscoy. Quite the makeup considering their competition.

"We have been one of the top teams in the country for a few years now. We're fairly well known, which is so impressive." said Harris, "You come here and you face a team like Owen Sound, and they're basically an All Star team from Ontario. They've got guys from all over. They hand picked their team. Whereas us, we have a group of athletes that we put together because we don't have pickups available to us. We are what we are, and we always say we put on our boots and in good old Saskatchewan fashion we get to work."

Congratulations to all of the players that took home bronze, and good luck to the players sticking around out east to compete for Saskatchewan at the Canada Summer Games.