Area Athletes Pitching in NCAA Division III Baseball
With few DIII schools in Missouri and Kansas, and their smaller recruiting budgets, there are fewer athletes from this area in DIII than in DII and DI. However the competition and experience are great
This is the 9th part in this 12 part series as I review the performances of Missouri and Kansas grads who play baseball and softball in the NCAA. Today we look at our local pitchers who compete in DIII Baseball.
Please be sure to sign up for your free subscription! There is the rest of this series, plus much more as we also look at all of the postseason awards our local talent is accumulating. How many athletes from these two states played NCAA Baseball and Softball this year? There are 1,383 of them. Yes, that is right. So, get your free subscription so you can see all the good things they have done!
And tell a friend!
If you missed the first parts of this series, you can find them here:
It is not surprising that there are fewer local baseball players playing DIII ball than in the other divisions. Afterall, there are no DIII colleges in Kansas, and only 4 in Missouri. Those are Fontbonne University, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Webster University, and Westminster College. But what is remarkable is that there are 55 pitchers in DIII baseball. Yes, they are pitching at the local schools. But also for 28 other DIII programs. Schools ranging from the University of Chicago to Grinnell College and to California Institute of Technology. These young men are combining their advanced education with their love of baseball. They are lucky men, indeed.
Due to the small universe of athletes in this group (Only 66 of the 878 who are playing NCAA Baseball) I am using a minimum of 25 innings pitched for statistics involving a percentage. The numbers are as of May 9. You can see 26 statistics for all 66 pitchers on the spreadsheet attached below. Let’s look to see who some of them are.
The two lowest ERA’s are found at the same university. The two juniors from the St. Louis area relocated to Decatur, Illinois to become Milliken University Big Blue. Landon Johnson (Hazelwood West/Milliken University) leads with an ERA of 2.59. Just behind is Drew Sutton (Holt/Milliken University) at 2.75. Leo Stone (Shawnee Mission East/Edgewood College) is a lefty with an ERA of 3.00. The freshman with the lowest ERA is Derek Archer (Francis Howell North/Westminster MO). His 3.43 ERA has earned him a record of 5 wins and 3 losses in his rookie year.
Gavin Kinworthy (Windsor-Imperial/Fontbonne University) leads in wins with 8. That is almost a third of the 25 total wins for his team. Nice work for a sophomore. Derek Archer (Francis Howell North/Westminster MO) and Joey Bock (John Burroughs/Emory University) are 5 and 3 so far this year.
Gavin Kinworthy (Windsor-Imperial/Fontbonne University) also leads in strikeouts, having fanned 96 batters in 79.1 innings of work. Joining him as a Griffin is Nick Glaser (Mehlville/Fontbonne University) with 63 strikeouts, the second most in this universe. The pitcher with the highest strikeout to walk ratio is Joey Bock (John Burroughs/Emory University), striking out 4.36 batters for every one he has walked. Just behind his former Bomber teammate is John Butka (John Burroughs/Univ. of Chicago) at 4.11. Also at 4.11 is Drew Sutton (Holt/Milliken University).
Whether it is a strikeout, ground out, or fly out, the pitcher’s objective is to get the batter out. The pitcher who has the lowest opponents’ batting average is Caleb Buehrle (Vianney/Milliken University) who limits the opposing batters to .155. Not far behind is Drew Sutton (Holt/Milliken University) at .190.
Attached below is a spreadsheet with 26 statistics for all 66 pitchers in this universe. The list is sorted by innings pitched and is as of May 9. But first, get your free subscription!
