Moose Jaw’s Cam O’Reilly grew up watching the Moose Jaw Miller Express do their thing at Ross Wells Park.
Now he’ll soon be taking the field with his hometown team.
The Miller Express announced recently that O’Reilly, 18, will be joining the Western Canadian Baseball League team’s pitching staff for the 2022 campaign.
And if things go even slightly as well as they did for O’Reilly this summer as they did down in St. Clair College this past fall, the Express could have an ace on their hands.
O’Reilly made his first-ever start with the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Saints on Sept. 26 against George Brown College and allowed a single hit over five innings work while striking out three in a 19-0 win.
A few days later, O’Reilly was right back at it, this time holding Centennial College to a single hit over five innings, striking out six and taking another 19-0 win.
All told, O’Reilly would cap his freshman campaign with some ridiculous numbers, including a 0.88 earned run average over four appearances and 16 innings of work, racking up 21 strikeouts against eight walks and holding opposing batters to a .151 average.
That made it all but academic when it came time to hand out the OCAA awards, with O’Reilly named the top pitcher in the eight-team league.
All told, St. Clair would finish with a 12-2 record and would cruise to the OCAA championship.
That things went so well for O’Reilly out east was of little surprise to anyone who saw him in action with the Moose Jaw Canucks in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League in the summer of 2021.
One of the team’s top starters, O’Reilly would lead the Canucks with 59.0 innings on the mound, recording a 3.79 ERA and 1.59 walks-and-hits-per-inning pitched. He capped the campaign with a 4-5 record over eight starts and 14 appearances for the 12-20 Canucks.
The Miller Express open their 2022 season on May 27 when they host the Medicine Hat Mavericks at Ross Wells Park.
