Saskatchewan girl, 11, throws 1st pitch at Blue Jays game

An 11-year-old girl from Saskatchewan threw the first pitch ahead of a Blue Jaysgame against the the Tampa Bay Raysat Rogers Centre in Toronto Tuesday evening.

Bella Arcand,from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, about 135 kilometres north of Saskatoon, was selected by the Children's Miracle Network to make the big pitch.

Her mother surprised her with the newsat a Dairy Queen, which helped to make the opportunity happen, in Saskatoon on July 20.

• Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Sask. girl, 11, to throw first pitch at Blue Jays game

Arcandwas diagnosed with Rasmussen's encephalitis, a rare inflammatory neurological disease. It left her, an avid baseball player,struggling with daily seizures, and in 2013 she required major brain surgery.

But on Tuesday she was shaking hands with professional baseball players and chatting with Blue Jays commentator Buck Martinez.

She also tossed a few warm-up pitchesto Ace, the Blue Jays' mascot before throwing the first pitch to relief pitcher Jason Grilli.

I feel the pitch went really well.- Bella Arcand

"It was overwhelming, I watched her after surgery not being able to move. Itwas days to get her out of bed and now I'm watching her crawl over the stands. She's walking out there on her own and she just owned it," Bella's mother, Bev Lafond, told CBC News.

"I'm the proudest mom there is right now."

Perfect Timing

The opportunity couldn't have come at a better time for Arcand, who was hospitalized back in the winter because of recurring seizures.

"She's been suffering from seizures and they returned in November and with those came headaches and we've been dealing with those. We couldn't control the headaches so they hospitalized her," Lafond said.

But for the past few weeks, all distraction aside, Arcand, who has been playing baseball since she was five, has been working on her pitch for her moment in the spotlight.

Moments before stepping on the mound, Arcand said she felt really nervous, but she was able to calm herself down and ended up taking in the entire experience.

"I feel the pitch went really well," Arcand said.

Watching from the field level, Lafond enjoyed watching her daughter rise to the occasion.

"Bella is very mature. She's had to undergo a lot of things in her life and with that comes the level of maturity,so when she's able to do fun things like this, I've been so happy about that," Lafond said.

The family is staying in Ontario until the end of the week. They will betraveling to Ottawa, Ont.for Dairy Queen's Miracle Treat Day, an annual fundraiser where proceeds from every blizzard sold at participating locations aredonated to the Children's Miracle Network member hospitals.