On Thursday, September 6, the Wilfrid Laurier men’s baseball team played the Ontario Blue Jays in a friendly exhibition match at Arnold Anderson Stadium in Brantford. A large number of Laurier fans showed up, many of them first year students here for O-Week.

The game started off with the Blue Jays using their superior hitting to get on base. The Laurier squad didn’t have their pitching or their throws on par in the first inning and consequently themselves a hole. Before the first inning had ended, the Blue Jays scored their first run.

The second inning was much the same, as the Golden Hawks needed better hitting. They managed to get a few players on base, but they couldn’t manage to bring them home to score. The score remained at 1-0.

The top of the third inning brought more misery for the Laurier team and their fans, as the Blue Jays drove in two runs to increase their lead to 3-0.

The top of the fourth finally gave the fans something to cheer about as a Laurier outfielder made a diving catch that saved two Blue Jay runs from scoring. The catch energized the crowd, and kept the score at 3-0.

Laurier had a solid chance in the top of the fifth, as a Blue Jay error sent a player to third base. But just as quickly, the Blue Jays scored another run, to take the Laurier momentum out of the equation.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Hawks gave their fans a reason to cheer, as a dropped ball by a Blue Jays player allowed Laurier to take advantage and drive home their first run of the game.

However, the Golden Hawks could never quite catch up, losing the game by a score of Blue Jays 7, Laurier 4. Coach Dennis Schooley is not too concerned, though and has a positive outlook for the 2012 season. When asked how he thinks his team will do this season he said, “It’s very simple. We’re here to do the very best we can, and ultimately win the championship. We have a good squad this year, and were ready to go out and prove we can win.”

“We had a good game today. Obviously no team wants to lose, but if we want to change this for next time, our hitting needs to be better. We played a good team and it was a very close game. I’m happy with what I saw and we can definitely translate this into some wins later,”  said Schooley. But there is room for improvement Coach Schooley said, “We had a few errors we could work on. Made some sloppy throws. We hit pretty well today, but we had some bad luck.”

The coach also had one final message for the Laurier fans, “Follow us this year. We’re going to have a great year and the more support the better!”