As "Reading Week" provided a welcomed respite for first year university students earlier this month, Sudbury Voyageurs' alum Noah Léveillé and Cameron Bauer pondered their inaugural experience with OUA baseball with very different perspectives.
Joining a relatively veteran-laden Laurentian Voyageurs team, albeit one with fewer numbers than much of their U Sports brethren, Léveillé was given the opportunity to get his feet wet on the mound as well as in a key role within the lineup at the plate, with contrasting results, from time to time.
"I am happy that I was able to get some playing time, actually playing in the regionals (as a leadoff hitter, no less)," said the 18 year old graduate of E.S. Champlain. "Because you don't know the pitchers you are facing, it's just about getting a good look and get good bat on the ball - get on base any way you can."
As a pitcher, the lessons came fast and furious.
"The first at-bat was a home run against me; I just laughed it off," Léveillé smiled. "Welcome to the OUA. There's nowhere to go but up from here. You cannot make mistakes in this league. If you make mistakes here, they will hit you - and hit you around."
As one of the few relative newcomers that incoming rookie head coach Steve Donahue can build around in the years to come, the well-spoken Mechanical Engineering student knows he has some runway ahead in order to develop.
"I am still experimenting," said Léveillé. "I have a normal fastball, change-up, curveball and two-seam (fastball) - but I would like to develop a few more pitches. Because I am left-handed, it would be nice to have a few more off-speeds that curve differently."
Long-time Sudbury PBLO teammate but OUA adversary, Waterloo Warriors' catcher Cameron Bauer knows what its like to be on the receiving end of a wide assortment of pitching looks, even if a late pre-season injury left his sidelined for the entirety of his freshman year.
"I was injured in an exhibition game just before the season started," noted Bauer, the Sudbury pair celebrated recently at The Baseball Academy.
"I was running down to first and lost my footing and fell forward, put my wrists out to brace myself and rolled my wrist."
But in his game and practice sessions prior to the mishap, the young man whose father is also a graduate of the University of Waterloo began to get a feel for how his crouch behind home plate at the OUA level might provide him with a slightly different look than what he has typically seen in northern Ontario.
"As a group, our pitchers throw a fair bit harder than the PBLO (Premier Baseball League of Ontario), three to four miles per hour harder," said Bauer. "And they throw way different pitches."
"In Sudbury, you see a lot of sliders, curveballs, fastballs. These guys throw more splitters and two-seam fastballs."
"You really need to understand how much their slider breaks, or how much their two-seam runs, or how much their splitter drops. You have to catch some bullpens and after three or four times catching them, you start to figure out how they are throwing, what they like to throw in what situations."
Still, for as much as there was new this fall, Cameron Bauer still drew heavily upon core values that he has learned through his years of involvement with the local rep baseball crew.
"Being a good teammate is just as important as being out of the field," stated the Lo-Ellen/St Charles graduate who plans to suit up with the Waterloo Tigers of the U22 Intercounty League next summer.
"I was busy doing Game Changer (on-line scorekeeping), picking up guys on the field, bringing out their hat and gloves. It helps build a nice atmosphere. Just because I am watching doesn't mean that I am not helping out the team."
