Seahawks claim top CIF baseball honors

Mike Sciacca

The Ocean View High baseball program continued to reap the rewards of

an outstanding season when Jeff Roth and then-head coach Aaron

Kavanagh were honored with the top two awards on the CIF-Southern

Section Division III baseball team.

Roth, who graduated from the school last week, was named the

division’s player of the year.

Kavanagh, who has since resigned from Ocean View to take a

teaching/head coaching position at Quartz Hill, was named coach of

the year.

In addition, Ocean View senior Alex Burnett and junior Jason

Walker each was named to the first team, and senior John Vega was

named to the second team.

Marina senior Justin Sellers, the Sunset League player of the year

who signed with the Oakland A’s earlier this month, was named to the

Division I second team.

Ocean View won the Division III title earlier this month by

defeating Temecula Valley, 3-2, at Angel Stadium.

Roth primarily played shortstop and, along with fellow senior Alex

Burnett, was one of the top two pitchers for the Seahawks.

The two-time reigning Golden West League player of the year, Roth

led the Seahawks in batting average (.387) and ERA (1.00) and was

second in RBI (25), home runs (four) and stolen bases (seven) in 30

games played. He was 10-1 on the mound.

“He definitely deserves the award,” Kavanagh said of Roth. “I

think this award is for career achievement.

“As for me, when a team wins a CIF title, the coach of the year

award kind of goes with it. It’s definitely a nice honor and good for

the resume, but I was just smart enough to put Jeff (Roth) or Alex

(Burnett) out there on the mound.”

In 30 appearances -- Ocean View finished the year 25-5 -- Burnett

led the Seahawks in RBI (31), home runs (seven) and stolen bases

(10), and was second on the team in batting average (.374) and ERA

(1.73). He went 11-3 on the mound.

Walker, meanwhile, was third on the team in batting average (.361)

and RBI (21) and played in all 30 games.

Vega finished the year with a .349 batting average.