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2024 La Crosse Loggers Baseball There ’ s No Place Like Copeland
leading the way for the Spitters was starting pitcher , Cam Schuelke ( Florida Gulf Coast ) who finished the season with a 0.68 ERA to lead the League in that department .
Also making the playoffs were the Kokomo Jack Rabbits who fell to Traverse City in the Divisional playoffs two games to one . The Madison Mallards won the second half and beat the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders before falling to the Pit Spitters in the Great Lakes Division finals . In the Great Plains St . Cloud won both halves and defeated the Mankato Moon Dogs two games to zero before defeating the Waterloo Bucks ( who also won both halves and beat the Duluth Huskies ) for the Great Plains crown .
The annual Northwoods League All-Star game held in Mankato , MN featured a wonderful luncheon with former Minnesota Twins great Tony Oliva as the guest speaker . Oliva would be voted into the MLB Hall of Fame later in the year . In front of a record crowd of 2854 fans in Mankato , the Great Plains defeated the Great Lakes 7-3 behind the St . Cloud Rox , Otto Kemp ( Point Loma Nazarene ) who was 2 for 4 with a home run to take MVP honors .
Most Valuable Player honors were split between Chandler Simpson ( Georgia Tech ) of Fond du Lac who hit . 377 and set the Northwoods League single season record with 55 stolen bases and Matt Higgins ( Bellarmine ) of Mankato who hit . 355 and drove in 50 runs for the Moon Dogs . Simpson would lead the NCAA in hitting for Georgia Tech the following spring .
In similar fashion , Justin Janas ( Illinois ) of the Kenosha Kingfish led the Big Ten in hitting before leading the Northwoods League with a . 402 average . Alex Iadisernia ( Elon ) led the Northwoods League with 10 Home Runs for the Madison Mallards .
In keeping with the Northwoods leadership in technology at the lower levels of baseball , the League became the second sports entity in America ( behind the NBA ) to offer a marketplace for its own NFT ’ s ( non-fungible tokens ). The NFT ’ s featured the Northwoods League ’ s current players and alums as digital trading cards .
For the second consecutive season the Minnesota Mud Puppies ( a team made up from players in the Minneapolis , MN area ) filled the void left by the Thunder Bay Border Cats of Ontario , Canada by playing their respective road schedule .
2022 The first post-Covid season saw growth both on and off the field as the Northwoods League drew 1,174,255 fans to its games , more than twice as much as any other Summer-Collegiate baseball League . Playing with 22 teams , the Northwoods League saw an uptick in its video coverage as two games daily were broadcast on the highly popular ESPN + streaming channel , as well as , every other game webcast , free of charge , to over 1.4 Million unique viewers .
Driven by the Northwoods League ’ s in house developed real time scoring system and data display on its websites , 17 Million views came to Northwoods League team and League websites over the course of 2022 , an average of almost 50,000 per day !
In addition , the Northwoods League became the first Summer-Collegiate Baseball League to have its games given betting lines to a national and international audience . In a partnership with DraftKings , NWL games were covered daily , as sports wagering exploded on the American scene being offered online and in person in many States .
Celebrating it ’ s 29th season , 35 NWL alumni made their MLB debut in 2022 . 20 years ago , in 2002 , three NWL alums made their MLB debut . In 2002 , eight Northwoods League alums played in MLB . In 2022 , 117 NWL alums played in MLB . Of the 30 MLB teams , seven awarded their Minor League Player of the Year to a Northwoods League alum !!!
There were many outstanding performances in the Northwoods League in 2022 both on the mound and at the plate . Ben Ross ( Notre Dame College ) of the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters led the League in hitting with a . 421 average with 10
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