Baseball | 8/20/2024 4:05:00 PM

Utah Tech senior outfielder Hunter Katschke was named the 2024 West Coast League Most Valuable Player by vote of the summer collegiate league's head coaches on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Katschke (6-3; Las Vegas, Nev./Basic HS/UNLV/College of Southern Nevada) led the WCL with nine home runs. He also just missed out on winning the league's "Triple Crown" as he was the league's second-leading hitter with a .367 average and finished third in RBI with 43. 
 
In all, Katschke finished in the WCL's top-10 in five statistical categories, including eighth in runs (40), t-ninth in doubles (12), and was 11^th-overall in hits (54) in 38 games played, all despite missing the first three week of the summer season. 

Katschke, who closed the summer campaign with an 11-game hit streak, helped lead the Ridgefield Raptors to a 21-7 record in the second half of the season and a wildcard playoff berth. 
 
Katschke earned second team all-Western Athletic Conference last spring after he led Utah Tech in batting (.302), base hits (58), extra-base hits (25), home runs (13), RBI (36) and runs scored (38). Katschke also paced the team with a .568 slugging percentage, while he finished third in doubles (12), and was fourth among everyday starters with a .372 on-base percentage.
 
Katschke, who hit .313 in WAC play, started in 52 of 54 games played last season, during which he hit safely in 36 of those contests, highlighted by a team best 13-game hit streak midway through the campaign.
 
Katschke posted 18 multi-hit outings, including two three-hit games, and a 4-for-5 night with a homer, four RBI and four runs scored vs. UTRGV (3/28/24).
 
He also became just the third Trailblazer in the program's brief NCAA Division I era to homer three times in one game, doing so in Utah Tech's home win over Utah on May 7, against which he drove in a season-high five runs. 
 
Katschke's 13 homers on the year were the fourth-most on Utah Tech's single season list, and ranked him t-eighth in the WAC. 
 
Defensively, Katschke wound up second on the team in both defensive putouts (97) and assists (4), and he finished the year with a .962 fielding percentage. 
 
Utah Tech wrapped up its fourth NCAA Division I provisional season with a 14-42 overall record, which included a 10-20 conference mark and a ninth-place finish in the WAC standings.