BLUFFTON, Ohio - A second Heartland Conference tournament berth in three seasons and third in the past six years has the Bluffton University baseball team excited to get on the field in 2024. Consecutive three-game sweeps of Earlham and Defiance propelled the Beavers to a Bluffton-best 14-8 Heartland record and third place finish in the conference. Five HCAC series wins and a pair of splits helped Bluffton equal the school record with 22 wins in 2023.
Bluffton will return the bulk of its core, including a handful of players suiting up for year five thanks to a 2020 season that was lost to COVID-19. Jake Baumgartner (Toldeo/Start) showed out with his second straight First Team All-Heartland Conference honor for baseball. He is also a two-time All-HCAC selection for his punting and kicking on the football field! Bummy smacked 49 hits and scored 35 runs, both second on the team. He drove in 29 runs and drew 19 walks while batting in the two-hole. Baumgartner started all 38 games he played, hitting .312 with nine doubles and three homers.
Also returning is the other half of Bluffton's middle infield, Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont). The senior shortstop led the Beavers with a pert .390 batting average which placed him 7th in the HCAC. His 54 RBI's led the conference and established a new single-season mark at Bluffton. Towell's nine homers are tied for 4th all-time for a single season at Bluffton and they are 8th in the conference. He also set a school record with seven RBI in a win over Albion that took 37 days and two states to complete. His .646 slugging percentage placed him 5th in the HCAC. He was named to the HCAC All-Tournament Team for his work in Kokomo against Manchester and Anderson.
Justin Maurer (Springfield/Kenton Ridge) moved into the lineup on day one and never looked back, starting all 40 games for the Beavers in 2023. The standout first baseman hit .320 and smashed seven homers which tied him for 9th on the Bluffton single-season list. He drove in 38 runs which tied him for 6th all-time at Bluffton and slugged .537 with 27 runs scored. Maurer drew 18 walks and was hit by a pitch 10 times, adding up to a sparkling .412 on-base percentage. He earned Honorable All-HCAC recognition as a sophomore in 2023.
Bluffton returns four hurlers who started at least five games in 2023, including Jaden Jaques (New Palestine, Ind.) who started six of his 13 appearances and went 6-4 which moved him into a tie for second on the single-season wins list. His 4.32 ERA was 8th in the Heartland and his six wins were tied for 3rd in the league. Jaques finished the season with 33 strikeouts in 41.2 innings. He has limited the opposition to a .294 batting average through 80.2 career innings on the bump.
Wyatt Groves (Marengo/Highland) and Andrew Collinsworth (Westerville/Westerville South) won consecutive HCAC Pitcher of the Week awards late last season as they combined to throw nearly 100 innings with 15 starts between them. The sensational sophomores also struck out 78 batters, with a team-high 54 K's from Collinsworth. Groves limited the opposition to a team-low .255 batting average.
Fifth-year senior Jacob Boelkens (Millbury/Lake) went 3-2 and started all 10 games that he pitched in. He struck out 31 against 20 walks and was Bluffton's ace much of the season in 2023. Darius Boeke (Sidney) was a bulldog out of the bullpen, going 2-1 with a 5.01 ERA in 23.1 inning of relief. Junior Nathan Young (Copley) also saw his work go up exponentially as the season wore on, striking out 27 batters in just 24 innings with only six walks. Opponents batted just .280 against the crafty southpaw. Seth Altman (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) is a swiss army knife who plays the outfield and gives Bluffton depth on the hill.
Senior Kenny Schneider (Sunbury/Big Walnut) hit .255, but he was hampered with nagging injuries throughout the year after leading Bluffton with a .340 average as a sophomore. Showing off his arm at the hot corner was Ezra Deitering (Miller City) who is back for year four as a Beaver. He hit .281 and finished the year with a .413 on-base percentage thanks to 20 walks and 10 hit by pitches. Deitering scored 27 runs and drove in 16 with 12 two-baggers. Ayden Spriggs (North Lewisburg/Triad) hit .297 in a variety of roles for the Beavers. He launched a pair of homers at Ohio Northern as a freshman in 2023.
Bluffton will open its season at the Gene Cusic Classic in sunny Fort Myers, Fla. in March before a trip to Albion on Tuesday, March 12. Heartland Conference action kicks off on Saturday, March 23, when Earlham is back at Memorial Field for the second straight year. Defiance travels to Bluffton on Good Friday to tip off a three-game series and local rival Ohio Northern is in town four days later. Manchester and Anderson are here on the final two Saturdays of April before Hanover College makes the four-hour trip to Beaver country on Sunday, May 5, for the regular-season finale.
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