COBA Preview: Oakville A's
Marc Walton does it all for the Oakville A’s. He hits, pitches and along with Alex Hawley, he coaches.
COBA Major Preview Article No. 2 – Oakville A’s
By Dan Estey
The Oakville A’s will return to the COBA Major Baseball League this summer looking to improve upon their season from a year ago. The rebuilding A’s had a rough 2017 season and after adding a number of players in 2018 the team was looking for more success on the field.
Those successes didn’t pan out for coach Alex Hawley as they team went 11-30-1 over the course of the season including a 9-18-1 record in league play to finish fourth in the Johnson Division and in the basement of the overall league standings.
The A’s attended four tournaments over the course of last season. They went to the Vaughan Vikings Invitational in June going 1-3 including a trip to the quarter-finals. After that they went 1-2 at the Lakeside Tournament in London and 0-3 at the annual Hap Walters Tournament missing the playoff round in both tournaments. They also attended the Ontario eliminations where they went 0-2 with a couple of tight losses 4-2 to Erindale in extra innings and 3-1 to Martingrove of the GTBL.
Oakville will return the majority of their roster from the 2018 season. Some of the key returnees include: pitchers Nick Boyd (3-3, 3.06 ERA, 50 innings, 47 hits, 27 runs, 17 earned runs, 26 strikeouts, 16 walks) and Mitchell Over (3-2, 3.50 ERA, 54 innings, 48 hits, 34 runs, 21 earned runs, 58 strikeouts, 31 walks).
Key offensive returnees include: Brendan Callaghan (.387, 16 runs, 29 hits, 8 RBIs), Marc Walton (.265, 18 runs, 26 hits, four doubles, four home runs, 21 RBIs), Blake Donaldson (.224, 24 runs, 26 hits, three doubles, four home runs, 18 RBIs) and Matt Reagan (.349, 20 runs, 30 hits, 3 doubles and 9 RBI). Reagan will also be called upon for some mound duty as well this season.
As mentioned earlier the Oakville club continues to be in a rebuilding phase as Hawley and co-coach Walton are adding six more bodies this season. Joining the club this season are: OF Ryan Freemantle (Ontario Royals, Burlington Herd, University of Guelph), LHP Peter Zytner (Guelph Silvercreeks, U of Guelph), INF Luke Whitehouse (Oakville Juniors, U of Guelph), OF Alex Devos (Oakville Juniors, U of Guelph), 1B Matt Carscadden (Ontario Blue Jays, Newmarket Juniors, U of Guelph), and LHP Javed Baksh (Mississauga North Tigers juniors). Leaving the club from last season are Marco Bandiera who will be making the trek to Etobicoke and RP Danny Roderick who will be sidelined with an injury.
With the core of last year’s team in place as well as a solid crop of new players entering the fold in 2019, the Oakville club will be looking for a more consistent effort this summer.
They will be able to show off their new roster on Friday, May 3 when they open the season at the newly renovated Oakville Park against the Mississauga Southwest Twins.