LONDON, Ont. - St. Clair College's Rya Cowan (LaSalle, Ont.) is the 2019 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Women's Softball Player of the Year. She received the award in a ceremony held in London, Ont., on Thursday evening.
The second-year third baseman led all OCAA players with six home runs and 36 RBI. She also contributed an impressive slash line of .449/.471/.795 in 24 games. When she wasn't manning the hot corner, she was on the rubber with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 22-4 over 46 innings. Cowan is also an OCAA All-Star.
Morgan Lowry (Middlesex Centre) of Fanshawe is the OCAA Rookie of the Year. Similar to Cowan, Lowry spent time at both third base and the pitching rubber. She was third among OCAA hurlers with a 1.56 ERA, and fell one strike out short of the league lead with 68 to her credit. Offensively Lowry batted .280 with nine RBI and eight runs scored.
Mohawk's Shelby Hayward (Hamilton) is the OCAA Batting Champion. The third-year player batted .494 over 83 plate appearances. She also led the league with 41 hits, seven triples, a .538 on base percentage, and .819 slugging percentage. Hayward is also an OCAA All-Star.
Presly Buchanan (Guelph, Ont.) of OCAA regular season champion Humber is the OCAA Pitcher of the Year. Buchanan had a stellar ERA of 1.21 in 52 innings of work, good for second among OCAA players. She struck out 54 batters. Buchanan had a record of 6-2 with five complete games.
The OCAA Coach of the Year is Ron Taylor of Conestoga. With a regular season record of 14-10, the Condors had a six-win turnaround in 2019, and advanced to the OCAA championship for the first time since 2014.
Also named OCAA All-Stars were Conestoga's Cassey Leader (Kitchener, Ont.) and Laura Rumph (Dryden, Ont.); Durham's Ashley Black (Waterloo, Ont.) and Alexis Pereira (Newmarket, Ont.); Fanshawe's Kennedi Roth (Stratford, Ont.); Humber's Meaghan Murphy (Brampton, Ont.); and St. Clair's Jenna Hillman (Windsor, Ont.).
2019 OCAA WOMEN'S SOFTBALL AWARDS
OCAA Women's Softball Player of the Year
Rya Cowan, St. Clair
OCAA Women's Softball Rookie of the Year
Morgan Lowry, Fanshawe
OCAA Women's Softball Batting Champion
Shelby Hayward, Mohawk
OCAA Women's Softball Pitcher of the Year
Presly Buchanan, Humber
OCAA Women's Softball Coach of the Year
Ron Taylor, Conestoga
OCAA Women's Softball League All-Stars
Ashley Black, Durham
Presly Buchanan, Humber
Rya Cowen, St. Clair
Shelby Hayward, Mohawk
Jenna Hillman, St. Clair
Cassey Leader, Conestoga
Meaghan Murphy, Humber
Alexis Pereira, Durham
Kennedi Roth, Fanshawe
Laura Rumph, Conestoga
- OCAA -
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