It's a Wrap: 2023 NCAA Division III Baseball
We have wrapped up NCAA Division I Softball. Now we will do the same with Division III Baseball as we trek through all three divisions of both sports.
Before we get started, please get your free subscription. You won’t want to miss the rest of this series. This series will cover in detail, NCAA Division I, II and III Softball and Baseball through the lens of Missourians and Kansans. If you missed the first part covering 64 local DI Softball athletes, you can access it here.
At the bottom are links to spreadsheets containing 22 offensive statistics and 26 pitching statistics on all 148 Missouri and Kansas men who competed in Division III Baseball this year. The numbers from these two states are smaller in DIII than the other two divisions largely because of geographics. While there are more DIII schools in the NCAA than either DI or DII, there are only four of those schools in this two state region.
Many of our local DIII athletes chose the instate programs. However, some went a great distance to get into a dugout. The highlighted athletes came from schools such as John Burroughs, Lafayette-Wildwood, and Windsor-Imperial on the Eastern side of Missouri and Blue Springs and Park Hill South in Metro Kansas City. These athletes played for three of the four instate DIII schools. They also went into Iowa to be a Coe Kohawk or a Grinnell Pioneer. They went East to DePauw and Case Western. And further East to Greensboro College and Emory University.
A freshman was his conference’s Newcomer of the Year. There are first, second, and third team all-conference honorees. They ranked high in their respective conferences in triples, doubles, hits, batting average and fielding percentage. And one finished in the Top 5 of DIII in triples. And per usual for this area, several were named to their Academic All-District Team.
Nick Harms (Parkway West/Case Western Reserve) finished in the top five in seven statistical categories in the ever competitive University Athletic Association (UAA). Nick was named to the UAA First Team as a sophomore. Also in the UAA, Joey Bock (John Burroughs/Emory University) was Second Team all-conference.
Christian Garcia (Blue Springs/Univ of Wisconsin-Superior) finished No. 1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) in three batting and fielding categories. All told, he was in the UMAC Top 5 in ten statistics.
Spencer Keiser (Winfield-MO/Westminster College) stayed close to home for his college ball but made his presence know nationwide by finishing in the DIII Top 5 in triples. Gavin Kinworthy (Windsor-Imperial/Fontbonne University) also stayed close to home to lead his conference in wins and strikeouts.
All but one of those mentioned are underclassmen.
And the list keeps going on.
Keep scrolling and you will see all of these men and their remarkable achievements.
To be included in this article, each athlete achieved one or more of the following:
An All-Conference award or Player of the Year designated by the conference
Rawlings Gold Glove Award
A conference Top 5 place in a selected statistical category
An NCAA Top 10 place in a selected statistical category
American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-Region
ABCA All-American or Player of the Year
College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Award
CSC Academic All-American
The athletes are listed in alpha sequence by last name. The demographic data for each includes name, class, position, high school, college, and college conference.
Enjoy and appreciate.
Derek Archer - Freshman - RHP - Francis Howell North - Westminster College MO - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year
Third Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Joey Bock - Senior - RHP - John Burroughs - Emory University - University Athletic Association
Second Team All-University Athletic Association
Eric Creech - Junior - Infield - Troy Buchanan- Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 4 Stolen Bases (15)
Mitchell Eckardt - Junior - Infield - Lafayette-Wildwood - Coe College - American Rivers Conference
Conference No. 4 Triples (4)
Second Team All-American Rivers Conference
Ian Feld - Sophomore - RHP - University City - Grinnell College - Midwest Conference
CSC Academic All-District
Christian Garcia - Junior - LHP - Blue Springs - University of Wisconsin-Superior - Upper Midwest Atlantic Conference
Conference No. 1 Doubles (21)
Conference No. 1 Fielding Chances (268)
Conference No. 1 Putouts (252)
Conference No. 2 Batting Average (.467)
Conference No. 2 Hits (70)
Conference No. 2 Total Bases (103)
Conference No. 3 Slugging Percentage (.687)
Conference No. 4 At Bats (150)
Conference No. 4 Runs Scored (49)
Conference No. 5 RBI (37)
First Team All-Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
Coltin Green - Junior - Catcher - St. Elizabeth - Westminster MO - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 4 Fielding Percentage (.991)
Third Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Nick Harms - Sophomore - Outfield - Parkway West - Case Western Reserve Univ. - University Athletic Association
Conference No. 2 Runs Scored (50)
Conference No. 2 Doubles (19)
Conference No. 2 Home Runs (11)
Conference No. 3 At Bats (172)
Conference No. 4 Hits (58)
Conference No. 4 RBI (42)
Conference No. 5 Triples (2)
CSC Academic All-District
First Team All-University Athletic Association
David Howard - Junior - Outfield - Lutheran South - Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 2 Saves (3)
Spencer Keiser - Sophomore - 1B - Winfield MO - Westminster MO - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 1 Triples (8)
NCAA No. 4 Triples (8)
Conference No. 3 Fielding Chances (318)
Conference No. 3 Putouts (290)
First Team All-Upper Midwest Atlantic Conference
Gavin Kinworthy - Sophomore - RHP - Windsor-Imperial - Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 1 Wins (8)
Conference No. 1 Strikeouts (96)
Conference No. 2 Innings Pitched - 79.1
Conference No. 5 ERA (3.18)
First Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Third Team ABCA/Rawlings All-Region 8
Carter Lee - Senior - Infield - Lafayette-Wildwood - Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 2 Home Runs (13)
Conference No. 4 Slugging Percentage (.671)
CSC Academic All-District
Second Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Cameron Macon - Junior - Infield - Kirkwood - DePauw University - North Coast Athletic Conference
Third Team All-North Coast Athletic Conference
Connor Morehouse - Senior - Catcher - Park Hill South - Greensboro College - USA South Athletic Conference
Conference No. 5 Doubles (13)
Jason Pesold - Junior - Utility - St. Pius X-Festus - Westminster MO - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Second Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Thomas Purschke - Senior - Infield - Oakville - Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Third Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Hayden Sanborn - Freshman - RHP - Vianney - Westminster MO - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 4 Saves (2)
Danny Sheehan - Senior - Infield - Chaminade - DePauw University - North Coast Athletic Conference
CSC Academic All-District
Colby Shivers - Junior - Infield - Rolla - Fontbonne University - St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference No. 5 Batting Average (.379)
Second Team All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Second Team ABCA/Rawlings All Region 8
Tyler Sucher - Junior - RHP - Clayton - DePauw University - North Coach Athletic Conference
CSC Academic All-District
Drew Sutton - Junior - RHP - Holt - Millikin University - College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
CSC Academic All-District
Here is the spreadsheet with 22 statistics on all 148 batters, in Batting Average order:
Here is the spreadsheet with 26 statistics on all 67 pitchers in order by ERA:
If you aren’t a free subscriber, please get yours now. You don’t want to miss the rest of this series.