The teenage substitute netted three times in half-an-hour either side of the break as Paul Dickov’s men were good value for their victory.
They began impressively with Dale Stephens having a shot blocked and Ryan Brooke curling an effort wide.
Ironically, it was an injury to Warren Feeney that allowed Eaves the chance to take centre stage.
The Northern Irishman had hobbled off midway through the first-half following a clash with Fabrice Muamba.
Eaves made an almost immediate impact, firing past Jussi Jaaskelainen from 20 yards to open the scoring.
Wanderers failed to create anything of note during the first-half with Matt Taylor twice shooting straight at Dean Brill.
Martin Petrov also sent a free-kick over the bar before Eaves notched his second with half-time approaching.
Reuben Hazell won the ball in midfield and found the 18-year-old, who held off Joey O’Brien and Gary Cahill to fire past Jaaskelainen.
With Wanderers appearing to be lacking Oldham’s overall sharpness, it was no surprise boss Owen Coyle made three changes at the break.
Mark Davies, Johan Elmander and Gretar Steinsson were all introduced as the visitors looked to freshen things up.
However, Eaves grabbed the limelight again on 56 minutes with his third goal as Lewis Alessandra and Ryan Brooke combined for Eaves to score.
Tamir Cohen and Chung-Yong Lee came on for the visitors, who offered little in the way of attacking threat.
High balls into the box were cleaned up by Hazell and Jason Jarrett, while Brill was barely tested.
Both sides continued to ring the changes with Athletic handing 17-year-old defender Matty D Carr his senior debut.
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This may have been just a friendly but what a marker for P.D and his staff to take a look at this potential £20m plus striker - Tom Eaves...ok not to get too excited after just one senior game, but this young man has got everything it takes and a great deal more.
Rarely do you find, particularly in the UK...natural born strikers with everything and in Tom's case the fact that he is 6 foot 5 inches and still only 18 years with no doubt more growth to come, Latics need to reject any offers at least for the next two maybe 3 years to let him develop under the guidance of Paul and his colleagues who are amongst the most rated coaches in the business.
We all know that Latics have financial difficulties like almost every club today, but at least we are solvent and in the hands of a thoroughly decent man in the shape of Simon Corney who has stuck to his word ever since he arrived at B.P....and he needs to back Paul Dickov and make sure that we keep Tom Eaves for this period of time to get the club re-established at a higher level.
If, as I expect to happen, Latics will have a great season particularly with our own home grown youngsters and potential youngstars given a chance at long last, other clubs do it !... why on earth Latics have not done for years baffles me, but I'll put that down to bad managers looking after their own backs first and protecting their jobs, rather than take a chance and get the results.
This year the results will I'm sure come and we'll see the Latics at the top of the league amongst the challengers from the off, this linked with the desire to play attractive football at long last !.....will most certainly attract the crowds back to B.P> the additional fact being that with the ex - Citee .. favourite now in charge at B.P. there will be many weekends when City are away or asked to play their matches on a Sunday on Monday evening by Sky TV...therefore creating a situation when the City fans don't have a home game on a Saturday, Tuesday or whatever and they will most certainly pay a visit to B.P. to see what their favourite little dynamo is producing as entertainment.
This I hope is the start of the revival of this great old club, the fans have craved for just minor success after the heady days of 1989 - 1992 ....when Big Joe had his golden years at the Club.
Come on you fans, this is your chance to see great football played once again, hopefully Mr Mancini will let Paul have a couple of his spare players to help us out if we need it.
Good luck Latics.
Well done Latics nice to see a good result just need consistancy for the season, clubs like Oldham are the way to go for the young player's in the UK they will get playing time & good coaching if they show promise. What the young player's also need is protection from the ref's, once they show promise the "cloggers" will have them in their sights.They also need protection from agents that have few moral's & will try to unsettle them with promise's of fame & fortune,this is were the FA come in but as we all know that's what they usually do to help our game sweet FA. Well done Tom keep up the good work & all the best for the season.
Oldham new goal machine we must not sell him.
Couldn't put it better Jeff Walker. I cannot wait for the season to start. I'm convinced those armchair critics will be back in the not too distant future.
Great to see the youngsters fighting for the right to wear the OLDHAM ATHLETIC shirt with pride and congratulations to Paul Dickov who has given the players a massive boost in confidence which is being shown on the pitch.
Come on Oldham we can make the Championship, where we belong.With Paul in charge who knows where we may end up, but for one thing we look like we are going to have a very entertaining season.
Well done Tom! Tom Eaves and Pawell Abbott would've made a great strike partnership for the Latics this season. What a shame they've let Pav go to Charlton for a nominal fee ie. peanuts. The board and management team down at Boundary Park sadly do not know a quality sriker when they see one. That's Pav, Chris O'Grady and Lee Hughes that we've lost in less than 18 months. Not to worry though, Paul Dickov says we are "blessed with strikers". Indeed that's true, it's just a shame that with the exception of Eaves, none of the others know where the back of the net is! Tom's good, but he can't do it all on his own .........