The Kalamazoo College baseball team had four selections to the D3baseball.com All-Region 7 teams on Monday (May 29). Head Coach Mike Ott was named the Coach of the Year for the first time in his 11-year stint at Kalamazoo. Ryar Rinehart added to his list of accolades by being named the region seven Rookie of the Year and to the First Team. Harrison Poeszat and Braden Mussat also made it as third-team selections.
Kalamazoo finished the 2023 season with a 31-11 (17-4 MIAA) record, won the MIAA Regular Season Championship for the first time in 96 years, and tied the program record for the most wins in a season. The Hornets began the season 12-6, had two separate winning streaks of eight and 11 games, and won 24 of 26 games from Mar. 22-May 3. Offensively, the Hornets set new single-season records in runs, RBI, stolen bases, and walks.
In his 11th year at the helm, Coach Ott led the team to its best season in terms of winning percentage at .738 and tied the 2017 team with the most wins in a season at 31. After becoming the winning coach in Kalamazoo history last season, Ott won his 200th career game this season against Williams on March 22. He led the program to its first MIAA Regular Season Championship since 1927 and its 10th overall. Coach Ott has a career record of 225-193-1 and a winning percentage of .538. During his tenure, he has led the program to its first NCAA Regional appearances (2016 & 2022), the program's first regional win in 2022 (8-7 in 10 innings over Mt. Aloysious), and produced the first All-Region and All-American players in program history.
Rinehart already became the first Kalamazoo position player to be named MIAA MVP in program history and the second player with pitcher Andy Bradford who was the co-MVP in 1990. Now, he is the first Hornet in program history to be named the D3Baseball.com All-Region 7 Rookie of the Year and the fourth to be selected to the All-Region 7 First Team along with Ian Kobernick (2017), Ryan Orr (2017), and Blake Bean (2022). He had a monster year by being the MIAA batting title champion and breaking the single-season MIAA records for RBI and slugging percentage in the 21 MIAA games. He also led the conference in hits and home runs while being tied for the most runs. Rinehart had a .423/.483/.789 slash line with 60 hits, 14 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs, 72 RBI, 47 runs, and 20 walks in 39 games. He led the Hornets in average, slugging percentage, hits, triples, home runs, and RBI while being second in doubles and on-base percentage and third in runs scored. He shattered the single-season RBI record of 52 that Doug Propson had last season while also eclipsing the single-season record of nine home runs that Spencer Baldwin and Blake Bean hit last season. Rinehart was also an All-MIAA First Team selection, a two-time MIAA Player of the Week, and a one-time NCBWA DIII Rookie of the Week.
Poeszat was equally impressive this season with a slash line of .397/.524/.623 with 58 hits, 17 doubles, two triples, four home runs, 44 RBI, 53 runs, 18 walks, and 22 hit-by-pitches in 42 games. He led the team in doubles, hit-by-pitches, and on-base percentage while being second in average, hits, triples, home runs, RBI, runs, and slugging percentage behind Rinehart. Poeszat was also in the top five in the MIAA for average, runs, hits, doubles, OBP, and SLG. In addition, he broke the single-season and career records for hit-by-pitches. He had 16 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games, with his best game coming against Defiance, going 5-6 with three doubles, three RBI, and the walk-off hit. Behind the plate, Poeszat had a .982 fielding percentage with 253 putouts and 24 assists in 282 total chances and threw out eight runners on the base paths. He was also an All-MIAA First Team selection and was named to the CSC Academic All-District Team.
Mussat had a breakout season as a weekend rotation starter for the Hornets after mostly being a reliever for his first two seasons. During the season, he made 12 appearances (nine starts) and went 7-1 with a complete game, a 1.22 ERA, and 41 strikeouts compared to 11 walks in 51.2 innings. He led the team in ERA while being second starts, wins, complete games, and innings pitched. His best game came against New Jersey City, where he threw a seven-inning complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits and striking out three. Mussat broke the single-season ERA record at Kalamazoo and was an All-MIAA First Team selection.