By Hannah Sabaratnam

Two club teams at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are back in action. Both the TMU Bold softball and baseball teams are looking to improve upon their previous seasons and make deep playoffs runs in 2025-26.

Softball

The softball team made a handful of additions to their team including outfielder Tessa Di Matteo, shortstop/catcher Grayce Cooper, first basewoman Dani Di Giusto, second basewoman Sylvia Ignas, pitcher/outfielder Ava Marmorato and second basewoman Alexia Mitakidis. The only graduating player from last year’s squad was centre fielder second basewoman Abby Stuart.

Last season, the Bold did not clinch a post-season berth—the only team in the East division to not do so—resulting in disappointment across the team. However, the team is motivated to come back and confident they can make a strong return to the field in October.

“We don’t want to have such an embarrassing ending like we did last year,” said fourth-year centre fielder/first basewoman Emily Bancroft. “We never want to feel that again.”

This year, the team is working to make improvements to their game. Poor offensive performances were an issue last season and are something the team is making a priority to change.

“I think if we can really focus on our offense, we’ll have a lot more success, and that’s what we’ve been working on all throughout the practice,” said Bancroft.

The theme for the 2025 season is positivity on and off the field. Despite good defense, when an error occurred the team would “lose the inning,” according to Bancroft. The Bold want to work on changing their mindset and uplifting one another.

A new tradition the team has started this year is naming a player of the game. Bancroft mentioned that after such a negative year and only focusing on what needs to improve, this new tradition will help the team highlight what they did well. Fourth-year outfielder Maddie Scime added that the goal with this is to keep the team motivated. 

“I think being positive is something that’s so important for any team,” said Scime. “When our spirits are up, it’s when we play best.” 

Last season Scime was named the team’s MVP for her all-around game and strong offensive performance. But she also is the embodiment of positivity and the vibe the team is trying to achieve this year, according to Bancroft. 

“Maddie is our light…she is always uplifting and is a phenomenal player,” said Bancroft. “We’re looking to her to keep that same energy this year.” 

Baseball

Seven players have graduated from last year’s squad including Noah Falkenberg, Ryan Bando, Will Muhalin, Josh Essery, Josh Thomas, Jaime Cabral and Devon Capitao. This year, there are a handful of new faces on the team including pitcher Johnny Melino, infielder (INF) Tim Antalan, outfielder (OF)/pitcher Lucas Vincent and pitcher Jason Roach. 

“Each guy brings something to the table that we feel could help us compete at a very high level,” said assistant coach Kevin MacDonald. 

Other rookies include INF Alexio Metaxes, OF/pitcher Ethan Miller, INF Josh Lang, OF Santiago Ortega and pitchers Shane Berlad, Luca Cutrone and Nicholas Dahlke. Rookies in the past have contributed to on-the-field success and the first-year class of this season has already seen some decent playing time. 

“The biggest thing we look for is effort and ability to make up for mistakes,” said MacDonald. “With such a short season anybody has the ability to contribute and give us a chance to win so that’s why we want to see what we have with them early.”  

The Bold noticeably improved their defence last season, maintaining strong pitching and offensive performances. Yet, they failed to reach their goal of winning the regional championship. For the first time in four years, the Bold did not make it to the qualifier finals. This year, the Bold are looking to get back. 

“I really just wanted to go farther than we’ve gone,” said graduate third baseman/catcher Ryan Ricci. “So far past the regional…the end goal is always to win it, but if we just make it to the final four, then we’ll play from there.” 

In between regular season play, the Bold do have exhibition games, with two against Team Ontario. Pitching coach Myles Swartz is also the pitching co-ordinator for Team Ontario. Knowing the strength of that team, the Bold are hoping to get more reps to improve in-game performance outside of their regular season matchups. 

“We go into those games knowing it’s an exhibition game…but we also really want to win and work on a lot of fundamentals that we can’t work on [during] the weekends,” said Ricci. 

The biggest—and unchanging—hurdle for this team is getting past the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues. The Bold, at times, have been right there competing against the Blues in the regular season. However, inconsistencies such as quiet bats and defensive miscues have plagued the Bold from advancing past the qualifier round. TMU will need to pull together all parts of their game in order to beat U of T.