Previewing his team prior to the start of the 2024 OUA Baseball season, Laurentian Voyageurs rookie coach Brayden MacEwan described four-year veteran Callum Belshaw as the clear-cut ace of his staff.

The 22 year-old who is expected to graduate from the Sports Administration program in early 2025 looked every bit the part last Sunday in Toronto.

Putting together a complete game 124 pitch performance, Belshaw somehow weaved and dodged his way around ten hits by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, limiting the damage to just four runs against as Laurentian racked up their first win of the year, 6-4 over the U of T.

"I honestly kind of sucked at the start of that game," noted the native of Brentwood (ON). "I actually think my game last year where I went eight innings against them was better stuff."

"I didn't have my good stuff (on Sunday), couldn't throw my breaking ball for a strike," Belshaw added. "It was a grind - but it was game where I found my stuff later."

Knicked for two runs against in the second inning and another in the third, Belshaw then slammed the door right through to the bottom of the eventh when the Blues tacked on their final run.

"It was my warm-up pitches going into the fifth inning when I suddenly felt a really good release point and thought: okay, that's it right there."

Given that the Voyageurs had lost six straight games entering the first of two Sunday matchups with Toronto - they were blanked 6-0 in game two - the need for the team leader to come through with a big game was borderline critical.

"We had struggled heading into that game," said Belshaw. "Those were six not great ball games that we had played. I'm a very intense guy when I pitch and my message to the boys was "let's go punch them in the face and see what happens" - that was the tone we wanted to set."

Trailing 3-0, Laurentian erupted for five runs in the fifth as Ethan Berube (3/3 - 3 RBIs) played a pair with a single, just after a Noah Leveille double had trimmed the deficit to just one.

"It was great to see everyone come together," said Belshaw. "We had our best year in program history last year because we had a group that played together for three years and really embraced the scrappy, underdog mentaility that we had."

"We had a team meeting on Saturday night at the hotel and there was a different feel on the bench, a different energy," Belshaw added. "We could just feel the fight, even when we were down 3-0."

With four years experience pitching at the OUA level, the young man who would love to land a career in the sport of baseball, even if that takes him south of the border, tries not to over-complicate matters when he is on the mound.

"I don't have out of this world stuff," he noted. "I have a pretty good breaking ball - but I throw, at my best, high seventies, low eighties. I throw a lot of fastballs, but I have success when I fill the zone."

"Just throw strikes."

Laurentian is on the road again this coming weekend, battling the Ottawa Gee Gees in a Saturday double-header before heading home to host the Carleton Ravens (September 28th) at the Terry Fox Sports Complex.