KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kalamazoo College baseball player and West Catholic alumni, Ryar Rinehart picked up a couple more postseason honors from D3baseball.com on Wednesday (May 31). Rinehart became the first student-athlete in program history to earn a national award when he was named the D3baseball.com National Rookie of the Year. He also became the fourth All-American in program history after making the third team.
Kalamazoo finished the 2023 season with a 31-11 (17-4 MIAA) record, won the MIAA Regular Season Championship for the first time in 96 years, and tied the program record for the most wins in a season. The Hornets began the season 12-6, had two separate winning streaks of eight and 11 games, and won 24 of 26 games from Mar. 22-May 3. Offensively, the Hornets set new single-season records in runs, RBI, stolen bases, and walks.
Rinehart had a monster year by being the MIAA batting title champion, and breaking the single-season MIAA records for RBI and slugging percentage in the 21 MIAA games. He also led the conference in hits and home runs while being tied for the most runs. On the season, Rinehart had a .423 (60-142) batting average with 60 hits, 14 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs, 72 RBI, 112 total bases, 47 runs, 20 walks, five stolen bases, a .483 on-base percentage, and a .789 slugging percentage in 39 games. He led the Hornets in average, slugging percentage, hits, triples, home runs, and RBI while being second in doubles along with on-base percentage and third in runs scored.
In addition, he shattered the single-season RBI record of 52 that Doug Propson had last season while also eclipsing the single-season record of nine home runs that Spencer Baldwin and Blake Bean hit last season. After his first season of collegiate baseball, Rinehart was the first Kalamazoo position player to be named MIAA MVP in program history and the second player with pitcher Andy Bradford, who was the co-MVP in 1990.
He was also an All-MIAA First Team selection, a two-time MIAA Player of the Week, and a one-time NCBWA DIII Rookie of the Week. Then this past week, Rinehart has been named the D3baseball.com Region 7 Rookie of the Year, to the D3baseball.com Region 7 All-Region First Team, and to the ABCA/Rawlings NCAA DIII Region 7 All-Region First Team along with his two honors today.
