QUEBEC CITY – Two and a half hours before Saturday’s game, president Michel Laplante is well installed on the mound of the Stade Canac and multiplies the pitches to the batters of the Capitals. It was at the request of manager Patrick Scalabrini that he was sent to the hill for training before this important playoff game.
“It’s a signal that I’m with them, commented Laplante, leaving the field, wiping a few drops of sweat. Pat texted me Saturday morning, asking me if it was possible to start batting practice. I accepted immediately. When Pat asks for it, there is an idea around it.
“For desperate times, it takes desperate measures,” Scalabrini admitted, smiling.
“It is to tell the players: we are all behind you together,” added the president.
Appreciated by players
In fact, Laplante throws pre-game batting practice 10 to 15 times during a season. The players claim him, when he can…
“I’ve thrown a lot of batting practices (BP) in my life,” acknowledged Laplante, who once enjoyed a career as a gunner in affiliate baseball and in the independent leagues. In the years when I was a coach, I did it often. I think I throw good BP, the guys like that.
It remained to be seen if the Capitals players, after being limited to four hits in nine innings on Friday in Ottawa, would do better on offense during the hot Saturday night at Stade Canac.
Glaude sets the tone
The first player from the Capitals to come up to bat, at the end of the first inning, Quebecer David Glaude set the tone by extracting a single at the expense of Titans starter Jose Taveras. If the ball was hit softly towards the mound, Glaude’s speed enabled him to successfully reach first base.
The Quebecer then stole second base, but his teammates were unable to push him home.