The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s baseball team wrapped up its season earlier in October just short of the playoffs, after winning two consecutive championships in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The Blues finished in sixth place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings, with a 10–14 record.

Some season highlights include a convincing sweep of the Ryerson Rams at home in mid-September, and another two-game sweep against the Guelph Gryphons on the following day. A later Blues highlight was a 4–3 victory against a playoff-bound Laurier team and its talented pitcher Noah Ivanyi, in the team’s second last game of the season. However, the strong victory was followed by a 12–0 drubbing at the hands of the Golden Hawks in the last game of the season. Coach Jim Sheppard described that loss as one of the season’s “lowlights.”

After winning the OUA championship in each of the last two years, this season comes as a disappointment, since a championship ­— or at least making the playoffs — was the team’s goal at the outset.

“Our goal was to win a championship. I don’t think there’s anything else to be said about that,” said graduating pitcher Ryan Donnelly.

While head coach Jim Sheppard echoed Donnelly’s statements, he also added that developing chemistry for the future was one of his goals as a coach — one that was successfully accomplished.

“As a team, our goals were to make the playoffs. But because of the amount of change we had this year, my personal goal was to develop some chemistry, and give them the experience to make them better ballplayers. Sometimes success isn’t what you can get when you have eleven new guys,” said Sheppard.

Coming into the season, the Varsity Blues added 11 new players to their roster, an enormous roster turnover from last year’s championship squad. However, Sheppard noted that these 11 new players are one of the strongest groups of rookies he has ever seen as a Blues coach.

“I think that it was probably the best crop of rookies that came into the University of Toronto in a long time,” said Sheppard in a previous interview with The Varsity.

For that reason, the Blues remain optimistic about their future. The season was not lost, because the Blues were able to develop chemistry within the team and a strong core of players that can guide them to more successful seasons in the future — another championship.

“Now that these guys have experience at the OUA level, and once they start playing in the junior age group in the summer, they will come back next fall as much stronger players,” said Donnelly.

“It will also be good to have a core set of players like that who will be around for a few years playing together.”

With that said, Sheppard also noted some areas that need to be improved if this team is going to be competitive for a championship in the next few seasons.

“When you get to the playoffs [pitching] is what carries you. The two years we won the championship we had excellent starting pitching. And we just didn’t have that on a consistent basis this year,” noted Sheppard.

Nonetheless, the experience gained this year, especially by the new additions, should contribute to its future success as early as next year. Sheppard believes that the sky is the limit for this Varsity Blues team, and with improvements from the younger players, as well as improvements in the pitching department, the team should start competing strongly early next season.

“I think we have a really high ceiling, because these are very good players to begin with, and the experience they got this year is only going to help them in the next two or three years,” said Sheppard.