If nothing else, rookie Laurentian Voyageurs baseball coach Brayden MacEwan will have some memories for a lifetime to take away from his first set of OUA Regionals at the helm of the program for whom he once played.
After going ten innings in knocking off the TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) Bold in their Friday night opener, the L.U. lads dropped a9-0 decision to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues the next morning.
With their season on the line, the Voyageurs hooked up with the York Lions in a marathon contest that lasted some six years and finished with a final score of: York 23 Laurentian 19 - and this in a game which the Lions led 5-2 after five innings of play.
If memories of that match might keep him up at night, the same cannot be said for the masterful performance of third year pitcher and Sudbury product Ryan Lacasse in game one.
The graduate of Collège Notre-Dame and current Sport & Physical Education major at L.U. tossed 8 1/3 innings of two hit ball, striking out 11 and leaving the contest only after throwing more than 145 pitches.
To boot, the 19 year-old who patrols centerfield when he is not on the mound drilled a two-run homer in the ninth inning to deadlock the game a 4-4, allowing Laurentian to claim victory in the tenth.
"That was the game of my life, 100% - and I realized that probably going into the second inning," said Lacasse, yet another Sudbury and area talent who developed within the Sudbury Voyageurs / Baseball Academy system.
"The first inning was a little bit rocky; I was having a little trouble commanding my fastball. But as soon as I settled in and figured out my groove, I locked in the rest of the game."
"I wanted that game so bad, to do it for my teammates and the guys that are graduating."
Though completely exhausted by the end of the weekend, Lacasse will look back with fondness on the 2024 season overall, one in which he took a major step forward after spending the summer as a middle reliever with the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) champion Barrie Baycats.
"Playing in the IBL with players who have played high level baseball, being able to pick their brains really gave me an extra edge in how to do my warm-ups, what pitch to throw to this hitter in this situation," said Lacasse.
"I think this was my best season, even if performance-wise, it didn't show with every Laurentian outing."
More than anything, Lacasse beams with pride as he discusses a team which is often times about half the size of the opposing OUA schools with whom they compete every fall.
"We're honestly such a resilient group as a whole: coaches, new players that have joined us. Everyone is so bought in. It was nice to see how everyone invests so much time just to make this team happen."
The Voyageurs will have more turnover in 2025 as they graduate captains Callum Belshaw and Nicholas Verbeek as well as Reid Deibert, Andrew Weber, Ethan Berubé and Will Darbel next spring.
On a separate note, the Barrie Baycats roster actually included a second Sudbury pitcher as West Virginia Tech Golden Bears junior Braedan Pakkala also returned north of the border for the summer, appearing in 12 games and earning his first IBL start.
