The Minnewaska Area baseball team, coached by Joe Alexander and Chris Lence, recently announced the season awards from the 2023 season.  The Lakers shared the WCC title this spring with Montevideo after both teams finished the season with 13-1 conference records.

Minnewaska Area started out 4-3, but came back to finish 15-5 overall after winning 11 of its last 13 games.  The Lakers had their season end with a 2-0 loss to Morris Area-CA in the playoff opener.

Morris Area-CA and Melrose Area tied for third in the WCC this season with 8-6 records, while Sauk Centre was 7-7, BOLD was 5-9 and West Central Area and Benson were tied for seventh with 1-13 records.

Letterwinners for the 2023 season included Austin Ballhagen, Connor Erickson, Alex Panitzke, Thomas Poegel, Nathan Dell, Levi Johnson, Austin Weber, Ryland Martin, Noah Jensen, Dylan Alexander, PJ Johnson, Caden Larson, Jack Majerus, Marc Gruber, Gavin Cain, Connor Frey, Ethan Jacobs and Luke Danielson.

•  Earning All-Conference this season were Noah Jensen, Dylan Alexander, PJ Johnson, Austin Ballhagen and Jack Majerus, while Alex Panitzke was selected to the honorable mention team.

In addition, PJ Johnson was named the MVP of the West Central Conference this spring and also earned All-Section 3AA honors.

In team awards for the Lakers this spring, PJ Johnson earned the MVP award, Noah Jensen was named the Offensive MVP, Dylan Alexander earned the Defensive MVP award and Austin Ballhagen was named the Most Improved.

Earning Academic All-WCC honors for the Lakers this year were Ryland Martin, Thomas Poegel, Levi Johnson, Alex Panitzke, Caden Larson, Marc Gruber and Jack Majerus.

For the JV team, Ben Johnson was named Defensive MVP and Riley Dell was the MVP, while for the C-squad team, Ben Johnson was named the Defensive MVP and Marc Gruber earned MVP.

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