Ryan Lacasse would like to be in the lineup each and every time the Laurentian Voyageurs baseball team takes to the field.

The recent graduate of Collège Notre-Dame and product of the Sudbury Voyageurs system understands all too well that at many levels, including the major leagues, pitchers often take advantage of their off-days to chart opposing hitters, beginning to game plan for the strategy they wish to employ the moment they step on the mound.

Lacasse is comfortable he can accomplish the same thing – albeit in a distinctly unique and personal fashion.

“In the outfield, I find that I look at the game differently and that it gives me an advantage because I analyze everything in the outfield between pitches - so I’m kind of charting anyways,” said the 17 year old freshman whose commitment to the L.U. program was officially announced last week.

For the past several years, Lacasse has split his time between pitching and the outfield. It just kind of came to be for the fascinating young man who first took up the sport at the age of six and is coming off a busy summer of work that included treks to the northernmost parts of Ontario.

“After two years of houseleague baseball, I moved to competitive with the Shamrocks and focused on being an outfielder at the beginning,” said the Sport & Physical Education major. “But then I realized that I was good enough to become a pitcher and kept developing those skills.”

Lacasse offers a duality that Voyageurs’ head coach Kirby Smith both appreciates and is certain to utilize. While he did have a tough go of it on Saturday, the local product earned the start for game two of their season opening double-header with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and is sure to see double duty on many weekends this fall.

In fact, Lacasse suggested last week that his two positions on the diamond actually tend to complement each other, to a certain degree. “As an outfielder, doing endurance work for my arm, long toss and stuff and getting ready to play the outfield definitely helped strengthen my arm as a pitcher.”

Beyond that, there is so much more that Ryan Lacasse has to offer.

Baseball Academy owner/operator Jean-Gilles Larocque spoke glowingly of the character of the new recruit, a grounded teenager who raved about the time he spent this summer as a baseball instructor for youth in Moosonee, just one of the community endeavours that Lacasse has embraced in recent years.

“I think it helps you develop values as a person, develop skills that you can use in the community,” he said. “It helps you become a better all-around teammate and player and helps you focus on what’s important. I just love the environment (in Moosonee) and the kids. The first time I went, I really made a connection with a lot of the kids.”

The Laurentian batsmen also made a connection on Saturday, doing far more damage offensively in game one against Toronto than has usually been the case opposite the defending OUA champions and six-time winners of the Jason Guindon Trophy.

It still wasn’t enough as the Voyageurs were edged 7-6 in game one before the visitors really got rolling in the rematch, bouncing the L.U. lads 15-3 in game two.

Calum Belishaw was impressive in keeping things close as the starting pitcher in the ice-breaker while Nicholas Verbeek walked and scored, plated by an RBI single from Brayden Grech who came around himself on another single by shortstop Andrew Weber as Laurentian managed all of their scoring in game two in the bottom of the second inning.

With a very short season at hand, the Voyageurs got a bit of a head start with a series of exhibition games in Ottawa over Labour Day weekend, after which coach Smith assessed his impression of his still young team at practice last week.

“I was very proud of the team and how we came together,” he noted. “Their tenacity, their drive – they were really connected.”

It’s no secret that the local university crew are not likely to out-skill too many of the larger institutions in the province. “We don’t have guys that are flame-throwers, but our pitchers all come out and compete – and that’s all we can ask for. Our batters showed some good approaches and we battled some counts.”

“We got runners on and moved them over.”

The Laurentian Voyageurs are back at home this weekend as the Queen’s Gaels are in town for a four game set.