Ahead of the curve

Bridgewater pitcher earns junior college title on path to NCAA Division 1 baseball

Evan O’toole has his eyes on the prize. As he steps up to NCAA Division 1 baseball with the Oklahoma State University Cowboys this fall, the Bridgewater pitcher is mindful of his longer-term goal to become a Major League Baseball draft choice.

“I’ve always wanted to play pro ball and have my name called in the draft,” said O’toole, back home in Nova Scotia for a visit before heading to his new school in July.

“I think going to Oklahoma State will really set that up well, with the opportunity there.”

O’toole, 20, returned to Bridgewater at the end of May fresh from winning a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) regional championship with the Iowa Western Reivers of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

After a standout junior college career, he would have been eligible for this year’s Major League draft, but he elected to declare for the 2023 draft instead to give him time to further develop his game at the top rung of U.S. college baseball.

“I really want to go down to Oklahoma State and have a year of experience there and then put my name out there for 2023,” said O’toole, a former Canadian junior national team member who played high school baseball at Vauxhall Academy in Alberta.

As he climbs the baseball ladder, O’toole will see a familiar face at Oklahoma State in fellow Iowa Western pitcher Brant Hogue, who has also committed to the Cowboys.

“I’m pretty excited about that, to have someone there that I know,” O’toole said.

O’toole and Hogue plan to be roommates in Stillwater, Okla., sharing an apartment with two of their new Oklahoma State teammates.

After officially committing to the Cowboys last November, O’toole capped his illustrious junior college career in championship fashion this spring. Iowa Western posted a 3-1 record in the conference championship to win the Region 11 title in NJCAA Division 1 baseball.

In one of those games, O’toole came on in relief in the fourth inning and threw a couple of innings in a loss to Indian Hills Community College.

“It went pretty well,” said the six-foot-four, 200-pound right-hander. “I gave up a couple of hits, but overall, I was able to give the team a chance to win the game.

“It’s definitely nice to get the regional championship. Because the first year I was down there, COVID happened, and we didn’t end up winning last year. It’s always nice to win a conference championship. It was a good way to end it off for my junior college career.”

The Reivers advanced to the Midwest district championship and posted a 2-2 record against four other regional champions, with a berth in the NJCAA Division 1 World Series up for grabs.

“I threw three innings that weekend,” O’toole said. “It was pretty good. We ended up losing the game, but the team we played (Wabash Valley) ended up fourth in the country. We were right with them pretty much until that last game.

“It was a great year. We won our regional championship, and then we were one win away from going to the Junior College World Series, so you can’t really complain about that.”

And there were certainly no complaints as the spring season began in February. Based on his past performances at the junior college level, O’toole was named the 2022 NJCAA Division 1 pre-season pitcher of the year.

“It’s just cool to see,” O’toole said when asked whether that honour brought with it extra expectations. “I think pressure is a good thing and it’s a privilege to have that with you.”

While the Reivers posted a 49-14 overall record, and a 28-5 slate in conference play, O’toole also made personal gains in his final junior college season.

“We definitely won a lot of games this year,” he said of Iowa Western. “Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance … and ending it off with a conference championship always helps. I was working on my slider a lot this year and it got a lot better. Just seeing more consistency with it, so I was really happy with how that went.”

In an April game, O’toole threw six scoreless innings and struck out nine batters to enable the Reivers to come back from a 5-0 deficit and post an 8-6 win over Southeastern Community College. For his efforts, he was selected as the NJCAA Division 1 pitcher of the week.

After an extended playoff season this spring, O’toole elected not to play in a summer league, as he did last year with the Rochester (Minn.) Honkers of the Northwoods

League. With a short timespan before reporting to Oklahoma State, he wanted to spend a few weeks in Nova Scotia with family and friends before embarking on the next stage of his baseball and academic pursuits.

Along with gym workouts in Bridgewater three times a week, O’toole is on the field daily. He’s been throwing with fellow Nova Scotia 17U Selects

graduate Nolan O’brien, now of the 22U Kentville Wildcats, and he’ll do likewise with Zach Zinck when Zinck returns home from coaching at Badlands Baseball Academy in Alberta.

While back home, O’toole has mentored young pitchers from the 18U and 13U teams in the Bridgewater Bulldogs system.

He’s also had a chance to watch his older brother Ryan, who plays third base with the Halifax Pelham Canadians of the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League.

“He’s excited about making the jump from the junior league to the senior league and playing against some pretty solid competition in the senior league.”

Bound for Oklahoma State two weeks into July, it will be

another emotional farewell for O’toole, who just weeks ago said goodbye to his junior college teammates.

“You really become close with those guys on your team for two years and it always sucks leaving them,” he said. “But you’ve just got to move on and know it’s part of the business of playing junior college baseball, and just look forward to the future.”