By Hannah Sabaratnam
By the end of this week, October baseball will be in full swing. With the MLB playoffs underway and the Blue Jays no longer in contention, other university teams in Ontario will take the field in pursuit of their own championships—the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Baseball Qualifier taking place from Oct. 4 to 6.
Among those teams is the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold, who will look to make a deep run after multiple years of heartbreak. The first step in their quest to become OUA champions is capturing the Central division title.
Every OUA team will compete in their division qualifier over the weekend, each division winner moving on to the championship round on Oct. 11 and 12 at Ajax Sportsplex. In their qualifiers in Brampton, Ont., the Bold will compete against the York University Lions, the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues and the Laurentian Voyageurs.
In this year’s regular season, the Bold dropped their series against the Lions and Varsity Blues and swept the Voyageurs. TMU dominated the Voyageurs in both games on Sept. 14 by a combined 20 runs. From there, the team lost 8-1 and 12-5 to the Lions on Sept. 21, followed by 3-1 and 11-8 losses to the Varsity Blues on Sept. 28.
The Bold finished the season overall with a 10-8 record—5-5 in OUA games and 5-3 in exhibition games—heading into OUA Qualifiers.
In the past, the Bold have had little issue getting past the Voyageurs and Lions in the qualifier. However, their rivals, the Varsity Blues, have proven to be the biggest obstacle. For the past three seasons, the Bold and Varsity Blues have squared off in the Central Qualifier Final, with U of T coming out on top all three times.
This year, the Bold are focused on building a winning culture in the hopes of finally getting over the hump and reaching the OUA Championship.
“Last year… we got down on ourselves really fast,” said fourth-year catcher and infielder Ryan Ricci. “So, this year…we’re [the older players] guiding the team towards having more positive mentalities.”
Bold assistant coach Kevin MacDonald said establishing a positive mentality is important not only on the field—but off of it when attempting to build that winning culture.
“[A winning culture] means showing up to the diamond and having the expectation that we’re going to compete with any single team that we play against and knowing that we can hang with anybody and beat anybody if we show up and play,” explained MacDonald.
During games, the team is looking to build more positive habits. When up by a large number of runs, it can be hard to stay engaged. Ricci said the team is working on staying focused by encouraging each other and keeping side conversations to a minimum.
“We try to stay into the game by encouraging our teammates up to bat and try not to have side conversations that are not related to baseball or just random conversations in general,” said Ricci.
Another crucial aspect of any successful team is the relationship between the players. As a club team, it can be hard to find ways to bond as a unit off the field considering players usually travel to games on their own—unlike varsity teams who have team transportation.
Yet Ricci said the squad still finds ways to spend time with each other. Whether it’s team dinners, attending school games or exploring Toronto as a group, the Bold players make an effort to get together.
“What we like to do is go to games in the off-season—like hockey, basketball, volleyball—at the [Mattamy Athletic Centre] or occasionally we go out and just enjoy ourselves [downtown],” he said.
The players also host a group dinner around Thanksgiving, which plays into an effort to avoid cliques and connect as teammates across multiple seasons.
“[We’re] definitely trying to bring more people into those [group events] and make it one big group rather than a bunch of smaller ones,” he said.
For now, the focus is on the task ahead. The OUA qualifier will be a good test in assessing how far the team has progressed compared to a year ago. Inconsistencies in the past have derailed this squad from truly becoming an elite team but this year, they’ve cut down on errors and found ways to maintain leads. As a result, their record has improved from 6-11-1 in 2023 to 5-5 so far this season.
“We have a lot more depth this year as a team,” said third-year pitcher and outfielder Parker Bailey.
Despite their .500 record—meaning they have the same number of wins and losses— the Bold have shown the potential to be much better than their record suggests. Now, putting all the pieces of their game together will be the key to making a deep playoff push this season.
“Our culture is a lot better. It feels like a winning culture. It feels like everyone on the team is part of it,” said Bailey.
The team feels they’ve built the team and culture needed to get past the Varsity Blues but it all comes down to winning the crucial game.
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