2025 College Baseball (Minnesotans in D1)

[Seth Stohs]

On Friday (Feb 14th), the 2025 Division I schedule opens its season. 

As I did last year, I went through the rosters of all the D1 schools (like 340 or so) and noted all Minnesotans on those rosters. Please go to THIS LINK and check out the variety of schools that Minnesota prep ball players are going to. 

Here are some notes, but if you have additional names or updates to add, let me know in the comments. In addition, I've always wished that we could find someone to cover each of the Minnesota college baseball programs in our Blogs. A weekly Gophers update or Tommies... For Division II, there are a bunch of NSIC teams that you could cover. And in Division II, there is the MIAC. Lots of junior/community colleges. If anyone is interested in providing an update on a college baseball team throughout the season, go for it. If you want ideas, let me know. 

• I found 152 Division I players from Minnesota. 
• No surprise, but the top two schools in terms of signing Minnesotans are the two D1 schools in Minnesota. 23 Minnesotans are on the St. Thomas roster. There are 20 Minnesotans on the Gophers roster. 
• Also, probably not a huge surprise that the two schools closest to Minnesota are next. South Dakota State has 13 Minnesotans. North Dakota State has 8 players from Minnesota. 
• Teams with 3+ Minnesotans: Creighton (5), Purdue (4), UW-Milwaukee (4), Valparaiso (3), Missouri (3), Xavier (3). 
• Chris Olean is the head coach at St. Thomas and he was long before they made the jump from Division 3 to Division 1. His Associate Head Coach is former Twins minor league infielder Tanner Vavra. Former long-time Twins coach (hitting, bench) Joe Vavra is a volunteer for the program. 
• After leading the Minnesota Gophers for 43 years as head coach, John Anderson retired. Former Gopher player (2012-16), Ty McDevitt, takes over the reins this season. He has been on the coaching staff the past eight year. He's been the team's pitching coach the past six years. 
• In the link above, you'll see that I also made some notes when I happened to find them. Not always consistent. But it's always interesting to see former big leaguers coaching at these programs. For instance, former Twins infielder and pinch hitter Chip Hale, who was a coach in the big leagues for a long time, has been the head coach at the University of Arizona. 
• Larry Lee returns as the coach of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo where his pitching coach is Seth Moir, who was a scout for the Twins for several years. He was the area scout who signed Bailey Ober. 
• Jarrod Hocking, son of former Twins infielder Denny Hocking whose uniform number has been retired by the Twins, plays at UCLA. Jakub Guardado, son of Twins Hall of Famer Eddie Guardado, pitches and hits at Pacific. Caleb Koskie, son of new Twins Hall of Famer Corey Koskie, is a freshman at Indiana. Paul Jones is a freshman at Maryland. He is the grandson of Twins Hall of Famer Cesar Tovar. Ian Koosman is a junior pitcher from Willmar who will pitch for Creighton this year. His great uncle, Jerry Koosman, is most famous for being a Miracle Met, but he also spent time with the Twins. 
• Former Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson left the Twins to be the pitching coach at LSU. He worked with Paul Skenes that year. After the season, he became the head coach at Georgia. 2025 will be his second season. 
• Steven Rosen became a Twins minor league coach before the 2020 season. Late in the 2021 season, he left the Twins. He has been at Manhattan University as a pitching coach the last couple of seasons. At the end of the 2024 season, he was named the team's head coach and became the youngest head coach in Division I at age 29. 
• Similarly, Nate Rasmussen was a Twins coach from 2019-21. Rasmussen went to Utah Valley University as an assistant coach. After the 2024 season, Rasmussen was named the team's head coach. 
• The 2024 Minnesota Mr. Baseball finalists were: 
  • Max Arlich (East Ridge HS): Arizona State University. 
  • Tyler Guerin (Mounds View HS): University of Iowa 
  • PJ Jones (Cretin-Derham Hall HS): University of Maryland 
  • Caleb Koskie (Benilde-St. Margaret's): Indiana University
  • Riley Leatherman (Winner, Wayzata HS): University of North Carolina 
  • Wilson Magers (Mankato West HS): Creighton University 
  • Luke Skinner (East Ridge HS): Loyola Marymount University 
• The 2023 Minnesota Mr. Baseball finalists were: 
  • Easton Breyfogle (Winner, Benilde-St. Margaret's HS): University of Arizona 
  • Kade Lewis (Sartell HS): Wake Forest (after a year at Butler)
  • Mason McCurdy (Stillwater HS): Creighton University 
  • Josh Och (Chanhassen HS): University of Southern Mississippi 
  • Tyler Phelps-Hemmesch (Sartell): U of Minnesota 
  • Jack Taxdahl (Cretin-Derham Hall HS): U of Minnesota 
  • Will Whelan (Centennial HS): U of Minnesota
• The 2022 Minnesota Mr. Baseball finalists were: 
  • Drew Berkland (Wayzata HS): U of Minnesota 
  • Easton Fritcher (Hayfield HS): U of Minnesota 
  • Blake Guerin (Mounds View HS): University of Iowa 
  • Kristofer Hokenson (St. Louis Park HS): U of Minnesota 
  • Kyle Law (Andover HS): North Dakota State University 
  • Maddox Mihalakis (Hopkins HS): University of Arizona 
  • Derrick Smith (White Bear Lake HS): North Carolina State 
• The 2021 Minnesota Mr. Baseball finalists were: 
  • Lincoln Berry (Eagan HS): Minnesota State-Mankato 
  • Trenton Burkhalter (Forest Lake HS): U of Nebraska-Omaha 
  • Noah Bush (Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted HS):  University of Louisville
  • Ben North (East Ridge HS): Creighton University 
  • Tucker Novotny (Park HS): Drafted by A's (2024)
  • Will Rogers (Mounds View HS): University of Michigan 
  • Ero Wallin (William Kelley HS): Upper Iowa (3 years at St. Cloud State) 

[ashbury]

9 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

On Friday (Feb 13th), the 2025 Division I schedule opens its season.

Pssst, Seth, Friday the Thirteenth came on Thursday this month.