Blues, Warriors bring home trio of awards following medal-winning efforts on the diamond
Burlington, Ont. – Following their battle for the banner at the 2023 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Baseball Championship earlier this month, the Toronto Varsity Blues and Waterloo Warriors both sees a trio of their standouts collect awards from their winning weekend.
Overall, Owen Taylor’s combination of timely hitting and clutch pitching powered him to co-MVP honours, alongside Waterloo’s Evan Morrison. The former drove in a pair of timely runs over championship weekend, before taking to the mound to record the final outs of the gold medal game. The Warriors all-star shortstop, meanwhile, did most of his damage at the plate during the team’s silver-medal run, and for his performance at the plate, was also named hitter of the year.
On the mound, meanwhile, Toronto’s Kevin Angers, who racked up 11 strikeouts and gave up just a lone run over 7.2 innings in the semifinals, was crowned as one of two most valuable pitchers. He joins fellow recipient, Waterloo’s Jake Roberts, who took the ball for the Warriors in the championship game and tossed six-plus innings of one-run ball.
Finally, despite it being his first taste of banner season competition, Blues rookie pitcher Clayton Winteler shone for the championship squad, coming out of the bullpen in fine form in the finale to secure rookie of the year honours.
The complete list of 2023 OUA baseball award winners and all-stars is as follows:
Most Valuable Player – Owen Taylor, Toronto; Evan Morrison, Waterloo
Most Valuable Pitcher – Kevin Angers, Toronto; Jake Roberts, Waterloo
Most Valuable Hitter – Evan Morrison, Waterloo
Rookie of the Year – Clayton Winteler, Toronto
First Team All-Stars
C – Kristyan Puyol-Gennossar, Toronto; Matt Underwood, McMaster
1B – Niko Kekatos, Toronto
2B – Sean Skorupski, Waterloo
SS – Evan Morrison, Waterloo
3B – Carter Hercun, Toronto
OF – Owen Taylor, Toronto
OF – Alessandro Strazzeri, Waterloo
OF – Kayan Alazam, McMaster
DH – Jayden Kemp, Waterloo
SP – Kevin Angers, Toronto
RP – Easton Kirkpatrick, Toronto
Second Team All-Stars
C – Alex Sleeman, Waterloo
1B – Ethan Seymour, McMaster
2B – MacLean Van Raay, McMaster
SS – Pat Mulligan, Carleton
3B – Anthony Polowick, McMaster
OF – Sam Shepherd, Waterloo
OF – Sam Aslanowicz, Toronto
OF – Justin Meade, McMaster
DH – Nicolas Velocci, McMaster
SP – Jake Roberts, Waterloo
RP – Matthew McKelvey. Waterloo