1974 Ontario Squirt A Softball Champions (OASA)

The 1974 Galt Squirt Knights of Columbus softball team won both the Inter-County championship in 1974 and the Ontario Squirt A softball championship.

The team, which played its home games at Galt’s Victoria Park, was coached by Reid Little and boasted an all-star lineup.

They lost only one game during the regular season, and once more in the provincial playoffs. The second loss came in their first meeting with the team they would eventually play in the championship series, Sault Ste. Marie.

Those were their only blemishes in an otherwise perfect season.

After winning the Inter-County title by defeating Woodstock, the Galt Knights advanced to the Ontario championship series. There they beat Preston, Guelph, Sarnia, and St. Catharines, before beating Scar- borough in the best-of-three Southern Ontario finals.

That led to a best-of-three showdown with Sault Ste. Marie, the Northern Ontario champions, at Lincoln Park.

Up to that point, the Galt Squirts had gone 10-0 in OASA action, after a 23-1 Inter-County regular season and playoff round.

“We think this is a truly outstanding team and worthy of some support from area softball fans,” said a spokesman for the Galt Minor Softball Association on the eve of the title series against the Soo. The team, he said, was solid all the way through, but pitchers Paul Brewer and Brian White, slugging catcher Kevin Holliday, “and slick-fielding third baseman Shannon Adshade” were singled out as key players in the team’s advance to the finals.

The first game was won by the Soo 4-3 before Galt staged a pair of major comebacks, beating the Soo 10-6 in the second game, and 20-3 in the deciding game to claim Galt’s first squirt provincial title since the mid-1960s. Galt squirts had dominated the division from 1961- 1964, winning four straight titles.