But for a timely run here and there, new OUA baseball manager Steve Donahue and his Laurentian Voyageurs might be sporting a record of 3-1 coming home for the second of a quartet of four-game weekend sets in September.
As it stands, L.U. sits at a very respectable 1-2-1 but has a series of tough matchups this weekend at the Terry Fox Sports Complex with the Western Mustangs visiting on Saturday and the Laurier Golden Hawks providing the opposition on Sunday.
Last weekend, the team opened with a pair of games in Toronto, falling by a single run (9-8) to the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold in game one but earning a 6-6 tie in game two.
Laurentian battled back in the 2023 ice-breaker, down 9-2 after four innings of play but making things close as pitcher Ben Baydock came on in relief and limited the Bold to just a single run over three innings of work on the mound.
Local product Matt Obradovich accounted for a pair of the nine Voyageurs hit and crossed the plate three times while Chris Ross drove in a pair of runs for the visitors.
A little light on pitchers this year, the Sudbury side were forced to use game two starter Callum Belshaw for the entire seven innings as the native of Brentwood (Tennessee) surrendered six hits and six walks while striking out four in earning the draw.
Sudbury Voyageurs' product Ryan Lacasse was top dog at the plate, picking up a pair of hits and adding four RBIs while Brayden Grech also smacked a couple of singles for Laurentian.
Game three was a tough one as the Queen's Gaels pitching tandem of Dean Christidis and River Cote checked the Vees on just four hits, striking out 13 batsmen (11 by Christidis alone) in a 9-0 shellacking of the northern squad.
The Voyageurs earned the split courtesy of a gutsy performance for Ryan Lacasse (7IP - 7 hits - 7 runs; four earned - 3 walks - two strikeouts), with Obradovich enjoying a three-hit performance as L.U. would see eight different players account for their eight runs and seven different players earn RBIs in an 8-7 win over Queen's.
