Fans of Sudbury Voyageurs PBLO (Premier Baseball League of Ontario) teams were likely pleasantly surprised to see the 14U squad split their four game set at home with the Midwestern Ontario Bearcats.

Heck, the kids surprised themselves.

"I did not think I was going to do that good - or my team," said outfielder/catcher Jett Beroll, an Espanola resident who went 4/7, scored a pair of runs and drove in one run as well.

"I think our coaches were really happy about how we worked together as a team. We never got down on ourselves, no matter what happened."

For the record, the Voyageurs bested the Bearcats 7-2 in the opener, dropped game two by a 9-2 count, rallied to score six in the bottom of the sixth in a 6-5 game three win and closed things out on the wrong end of a 14-0 setback.

A solid pitching performance from Jett Beroll (three innings) and Liam Mahoney (one scoreless inning) paced the locals in game one as Beroll surrendered one hit and struck out three.

The six run rally in game three featured a two-run double from Franky Finamore and the second hit of the game for Ryder Roy, also driving in a run. Sudbury pitcher Blake Rothwell kept his team in the game with three innings of scoreless ball.

While roughly half of the 14U Voyageurs roster are returnees to the PBLO from one year ago, a similar number are in the same boat as Jett Beroll, making the jump this summer.

"It first, it was pretty scary, but I got used to it," said Beroll, a grade eight student at A.B. Ellis Public School. "The balls were coming in way faster so it's a matter of getting the bat off my shoulders more quickly."

Not the easiest thing when yet another adjustment lies in the wings, solely from an equipment standpoint.

"I am using a bigger bat than when I joined, so I have to load up earlier and get around earlier," he said. "But the pitching is from further back so it's a little tricky to tell if it's coming in fast or not."

Even in the field, Beroll is having a looking at a far different sight-line.

"Up to last year, I played mostly infield (3B) and catcher - but this year, I'm catcher and outfield," he said. "Outfield is more fun now because we get more balls hit out there now."

"When I first got in the outfield, I started charging balls like I would do at third base and they would overshoot me every time," Beroll continued. "I have to back up and then go in. It's not like the infield where you're charging every ball."

The Sudbury 18U Voyageurs also managed to play .500 ball on the weekend, squeezing out close wins by scores of 8-7 and 4-3 before losing the final two encounters, 9-6 and 10-5.

The hot bats for the local crew belonged to Ryan Spencer (4/9 - 3 runs scored, four RBIs), Braiden Paul (6/7) and Justin Dandeneau (4/10 - 6 runs scored).

Making their presence felt on the mound were Callum Baron (4 IP - 1 earned run), Brady Soucy (3 IP - one earned run) and Braiden Paul (4.1 IP - no runs allowed - 6 strikeouts).

Finally, the 16U Voyageurs were in particularly tough, facing the top team in the province in this age group and swept aside in four straight outings by the Ontario Yankees from Ajax.

The best Sudbury showing came in the series finale. Though the locals had pretty much run out of arms on the mound, they did manage to get the bats going a little, beaten 18-6 by the Yankees.

Justin Mrochek drove in a pair of runs with a triple, Chase Taylor went two for two and crossed the plate twice and Landon Creasey singled in a run and came around to score.