Laurentian University to have Voyageurs Baseball team this fall

Laurentian University in Sudbury is creating a varsity baseball team that will be on the field this coming fall.

The Voyageurs Baseball team will play its first game in September.

"To make it official, it feels great," Jean-Gilles Larocque, one of the assistant coaches for the team said.

The university says the opportunity was presented to the university at no cost so it couldn't say no.

"We're going to be a self funded program," Larocque said.

"We're going to have community support to be able to pay for those costs for travelling and equipment."

As for recruiting athletes who would normally choose to attend an American college or university to play, head coach Brodie Jeffery says recently, there's been a push for those athletes to stay in Canada.

Gaining momentum

"The [Ontario University Athletics] is starting to grow," he said.

"They're starting to gain some momentum in baseball."

Michel Larivière, a professor at the university's school of human kinetics, and one of the coach staff says the addition of the team will benefit Laurentian.

"Varsity sports in general enriches the student experience," he said.

"But I think the other part of it is it's going to be a draw for additional students on campus for us which is good for our programs."

The team will play at the Terry Fox Complex. The first game against Western University will take place in Sudbury on Sept. 8.