Lindsey Clark

Veteran Squad Looks to Return to NWC Tourney in 2025

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

The Pacific Lutheran University baseball team is stacked with 27 upperclassmen and return virtually the entire lineup from last spring as the team looks to return to the Northwest Conference Tournament after a two-year hiatus.

It's nice to finally be older. We have 14 seniors and 13 juniors and they’ve played quite a bit over the last couple of years,

said Head Coach Nolan Soete who enters his 10th season at the helm just 12 wins shy of 200 for his career.

We didn't have the year we obviously wanted to have last year, but the good thing is we played the most difficult schedule in the west region. Most of the guys who played last year are back and some of the things we did last year are going to pay off this year.

2025 Roster

Among the returners is four of PLU’s five All-Conference performers from a season ago. That includes a pair of infielders in Aaron Barber and Hayden Kaiser, outfielder Rutger Youch, and pitcher Chris Moreno.

Barber led the team at the plate with a .349 batting average with 11 extra base hits and 26 runs scored. The senior was one of the most difficult players in the country to strike out in 2025, going down on strikes just 11 times in 149 at-bats. A First Team All-League selection, the second baseman had a .995 fielding percentage in 2024 and had a successful summer, winning a West Coast League title with the Portland Pickles.

Kaiser hit .320 last season and was an Honorable Mention All-Conference as a designated hitter. Kaiser, who also saw time at first base, led the team in both slugging percentage (.533) and on-base percentage (.458), belting three home runs and racking up 15 RBIs.

Youch started 36 games last spring in the outfield, scoring 23 runs with 11 extra base hits and 13 RBIs. Defensively, the Honorable Mention All-NWC pick led the team in assists with 109 on the year.

Moreno is the lone pitcher to earn All-League honors, securing Honorable Mention status as a relief pitcher. The California native led the team in innings pitched, tossing 54 2/3 innings with 60 strikeouts and a 4.77 earned run average in 15 appearances.

A big missing piece for the Lutes (14-25 overall, 9-15 in NWC in 2024) will be utility man and Second Team All-Conference honoree Ashton Barton. Barton played third, first, and catcher, and was a steady presence at the plate, leading the team in RBIs (33), doubles (13), and home runs (seven).

Boosting PLU’s prospects is the return of shortstop Braeden Lundberg and outfielder Ethan Keintz. Lundberg was a Second Team All-NWC selection in 2023 after hitting .352 at the plate but was sidelined all of the 2024 season with an injury. Keintz had a similar fate, hitting .308 in 2023 and making 31 starts in the outfield, the senior was inactive last spring due to injury.

Getting those guys back is absolutely huge. Not only because they are two of our best players, but also they are very good leaders. They lead by example and work hard. Lundberg is extremely consistent in the field, at the plate, and how he goes about his business, and the same can be said about Keintz as well. Obviously from a talent aspect, it's great to have them back, but in terms of the whole package, they are both really important pieces to this team.

Lundberg’s replacement at shortstop— Brody Phinney— will battle with Carson Burke for playing time at third base. Phinney played in all 39 games last year, driving in 27 runs with 16 extra base hits. Burke saw action in all but one game last season, leading the team in stolen bases (eight) while scoring 18 runs.

Lukas Delisle is back behind the dish. Last season he made 33 starts at catcher, finishing second on the team in putouts with 197 while providing 11 RBIs at the plate.

“Thank goodness for Lucas coming back for this fifth year, because that would be our most inexperienced position. I think Peter King is the number two catcher right now, he’s transitioning from outfield to catcher. He'll play outfield too, but he's the ultimate teammate who volunteered to learn how to catch. He started this in the fall and has been putting a ton of effort into that.”

First base looks to be a battle between Kaiser and Asa Reese, who had a huge offseason. Last spring, Reese played in 27 games, making 12 starts.

Joining Youch and Keintz in the outfield will be Jaden Pieper and Rochne Beecham. Pieper hit .323 at the plate with 12 RBIs, taking advantage of his limited opportunities. Beecham meanwhile played in all but one game last spring, driving in 23 runs and finishing with six extra base hits.

Experience will be PLU’s biggest strength on the mound returning arms that tossed 316 1/3 of the 340 1/3 innings played last spring and accounted for 231 of the team’s 242 strikeouts.

I'm excited. It’s one of the more talented pitching staffs I've had as a head coach, definitely a lot of talent and experience in terms of games played.

In addition to Moreno, the Lutes return Jon Crawley, Kamryn Swartz, Matthew Sherwood, and Jonathan Cohen. All four started at least seven games for the Lutes. Cohen saw the second most action of the group last spring, tossing 50 1/3 innings with 28 strikeouts. Sherwood posted a 3-3 record in his first collegiate season, fanning 37 batters in 47 2/3 innings of action while Swartz tossed 44 1/3 innings and Crawley tallied 39 innings of work.

“Some of them are still young, like Matthew Sherwood and the Logan Egge that are sophomores. These guys played against some good competition, they got their feet wet last year. I think all the ups and downs and adversity we faced last year will pay off. I will tell you, we haven't proven anything yet up to this point. I tell these guys this every day, the guys that are returning might have played in a lot of games the last year or two, but we have not had anyone put together a very consistent high level season yet. So these guys are heavily motivated to have that opportunity because they want to show what they have.”

While some of the starters have been solidified, Soete isn’t sure who will take on the role of closer this spring and will potentially rely on multiple bullpen arms

I wish I had a dedicated back end guy. Some of our best years at PLU with the baseball team have been years where we have a legit shutdown guy on the back end. That's not always the case, I feel like we have that guy on the roster right now, I can't give you an answer but right now I’d lean towards Logan Egge being the back end guy. He's also a potential starter in the future, it really depends on how things go. I think I would feel comfortable putting him in some big situa-tions in the 8th and 9th inning. We have some other guys in the mix as well that have been there and pitched in some big innings over the years.

In addition to Egge, Soete expects Cade Hamel, Jake Prewett, and Anthony Adams to be a big part of the bullpen in 2025, along with Wyatt Norris who had a great fall and early spring.

“Norris is a guy I can see eating up a lot of innings in the 7th and 8th inning. He’s throwing a three pitch mix right now and a lot of strikes.”

With such a veteran squad, Soete expects less pressure on the first-years to make an immediate impact in 2025.

“The good thing is there is not as much pressure on the freshman to fill important spots right away like last year and the year before. As far as position players I think Kyle Tat stands out. He has been our most consistent offensive threat as far as that freshman class. Andrew Hickman is a freshman arm who I think will see a few opportunities on the mound. Alex Lopez as well has had a few good weeks of practice and he'll get some good opportunities. You know, there are some other guys in the long run, I think Matt Carleton is a guy that can help us out as well, I just don't know when yet. It could be right away or it could be down the road.”

The Lutes open the season with a stiff test in California, opening the season on Thursday against Whittier College before facing eighth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in a three-game series. Pacific Lutheran plays four non-conference games against conference foes before opening Northwest Conference play at home on March 1 against Lewis & Clark College.

I’m going to try to put my best lineup out there every day. Obviously if someone is not performing at the time, then we have some depth on the bench. I will not be afraid to put my next 2-3 guys in, after that, it's pretty clear who the top 12-13 players are right now, in terms of position players, and they'll get the majority of the playing time.

We will need to be ready to go. I got a good idea of who will be starting the first weekend. The good thing is if some of those starters don't produce or have a bad game, we have a good 3-4 guys who can replace them and give them a break, and I don't think there is a talent drop off.

PLU and Whittier battle on Thursday afternoon with first pitch in southern California set for 2 p.m.

Lutes' 2025 Schedule