80
2024 La Crosse Loggers Baseball There ’ s No Place Like Copeland
HRs before signing with the Minnesota Twins as a 5th Round Draft Pick . Coincidentally , Sean Ross ( Indiana State ) was second in hitting , leading the Mankato MoonDogs all summer with a . 372 average and becoming the League ’ s 2022 MVP . Brendan Bobo ( Cal-State Fullerton ) led the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters and the Northwoods League with 17 Home Runs as the Rafters shattered all NWL regular season win records , going 57-15 , and winning both halves of the Great Lakes West Sub-Division . Charlie Condon ( University of Georgia ), a freshman , led the League in RBI with 68 and hit two Home Runs in the Northwoods League All-Star game at Wisconsin Rapids , leading to MVP honors . On the hill , three pitchers ended the season with 8-0 records . Josh Hewitt ( Cal-State Fullerton ) Wisconsin Rapids , sophomore Hunter Day ( Tarleton State ) St . Cloud and junior Jack Habeck ( St . Cloud State ) Willmar , all turned in perfect performances during the regular season . Habeck was named the NWL Pitcher of the Year and defeated Hunter Day in the initial round of the Northwoods League playoffs in a magnificent pitcher ’ s duel .
In the Great Lakes Division , Wisconsin Rapids defeated the Wausau Woodchucks ( 2-1 ) in a hard-fought series before losing to the Kalamazoo Growlers in an exciting 10-inning affair for the Great Lakes Championship . Kalamazoo had previously defeated the Traverse City Pit Spitters ( 2-0 ). Wilmar defeated St . Cloud ( 2-0 ), while Duluth beat Eau Claire ( 2-0 ). Duluth then defeated Wilmar for the Great Plains Championship , but was defeated by the lowest seed in the playoffs , the Kalamazoo Growlers , who took home an unlikely Northwoods League Crown . Long time NWL Manager Cody Piechocki brought home his first Championship after nine years coaching in the League . Manager , Kirk Shrider of the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters was named Manager of the Year honoring his team ’ s remarkable 57-win regular season . His pitching coach , and long-time MLB Pitcher , John Halama was named the Northwoods League ’ s Coach of the Year .
Following the season , the Canadian border was opened to all Americans , allowing the Thunder Bay Border Cats to return to the Northwoods League for the 2023 Season , joining the new expansion team from Minot , ND as the League will play with 24 teams in its 30th-Anniversary season .
2023 The 30th Anniversary Season of the Northwoods League resulted in the League ’ s All-Time Single Season Attendance record with 1,313,916 fans going through the turnstiles . Playing with an all-time high of 24 teams and an All-Star game in the Great Lakes and Great Plains Division ’ s , fans were exposed to Northwoods League action like never before .
Playing two divisional All-Star games allowed two premier Northwoods League cities , Bismarck , ND and Traverse City , MI to host games that would have been impossible due to the geographic limitations of attempting to bring all teams to these locations that are well over 1000 miles apart . Both games were featured on ESPNU .
In addition , the League had two of its games broadcast daily on the ESPN + platform averaging 4121 Unique Viewers per game viewing over 65,000 minutes per game . The June 15th game at Green Bay versus Kokomo drew over 22,500 Unique Viewers on the platform . In total , fans viewed over 10,200,000 minutes of Northwoods League action on ESPN + in 2023 .
The story on the field was the Willmar Stingers who had the League ’ s best record of 51-16 on the season , winning their last 10 games to take both halves in the Great Plains West sub-division . Stingers Manager Freddy Smith was named Manager of the Year by his peers for his efforts . Jack Shaffer of the Bismarck Larks was named Coach of the Year .
When the dust settled , joining Willmar in the playoffs from the Great Plains were the St . Cloud Rox , Eau Claire Express and La Crosse Loggers . In the Great Lakes , it was the Green Bay Rockers , Traverse City Pit Spitters , Kalamazoo Growlers and Madison Mallards .
80