• 2025 All-OVC Baseball Teams and Award Winners (PDF)
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - Tennessee Tech sophomore catcher
Mack Whitcomb was named the 2025 OVC Player of the Year while Lindenwood junior pitcher
Josh Newell was tabbed OVC Pitcher of the Year in a vote of league head coaches and communication directors. In additional voting, Lindenwood second baseman
Charlie Isom-McCall was named OVC Freshman of the Year while Eastern Illinois'
Jason Anderson earned OVC Coach of the Year honors.
The announcement of the 2025 baseball awards is presented by FieldTurf.
The honors, along with first and second-team All-OVC and All-Freshman honors were announced ahead of the 2025 OVC Baseball Championship presented by SERVPRO which begins on Wednesday at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Illinois.
SIUE had the most first-team selections with four, followed by Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Tech who had three each. TTU had the most selections across the three teams (8) followed by SIUE (7). The All-OVC first-team included two seniors, nine juniors and four sophomores while the second-team had 10 seniors, four juniors and two sophomores.
Whitcomb started 55 of Tennessee Tech's 56 games this season, with 44 of those coming behind the plate for a team that won 37 overall games and finished third in the OVC standings (1.5 games behind first place). In all games Whitcomb ranked first in the OVC in on-base percentage (.489), second in batting average (.362), third in slugging percentage (.657), fourth in hits (1.36/game), runs scored (0.98/game) and total bases (2.47/game) and fifth in home runs (0.27/game), RBI (1.00/game). In OVC play he ranked first in hits (1.62/game, home runs (0.42/game), total bases (3.15/game) and slugging (.774), second in runs (1.23/game), batting (.396) and on-base percentage (.508) and third in RBI (1.19/game). The sophomore had 21 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games and had a long hitting streak of 17 games. In a victory over Lindenwood he smashed three home runs to tie the TTU single-game record and be named OVC Player of the Week. Whitcomb is the first TTU player to be named OVC Player of the Year since Kevin Strohschein won the award for the third time in 2019. Overall, he is the fifth different Golden Eagle to win the award.
In 14 overall starts on the season, Newell compiled a 10-2 record with 3.18 E.R.A. in 90.2 innings. He struck out 54 while tossing two complete game shutouts. His numbers were even better in OVC play, going a perfect 7-0 with a 1.96 E.R.A. in nine starts. Over those 64.1 innings, he struck out 35 and held opponents to a .203 batting average. In all games he was first in the OVC in innings pitched and wins and second in E.R.A. In League-only games Newell was first in innings pitched and wins, second in opponent's batting average and third in the league (first among starters) in E.R.A. His 10 overall victories are tied for the fourth-most nationally entering the postseason. Newell suffered a loss in the season-opener at Southeastern Louisiana, and then at Memphis on March 14 but was perfect the rest of the way, winning seven of his final eight starts. He hurled a three-hit shutout with seven strikeouts and no walks against UT Martin on March 28 and two starts later had a four-hit shutout with seven strikeouts and only walk against SIUE. The seven strikeouts in both of those games tied for a season high.
Isom-McCall started 52 games for a Lindenwood team that won 14 OVC games and qualified for the OVC Tournament for the first time. The second baseman led the OVC in triples (5) while hitting .276 with 44 runs scored, 56 hits, 11 doubles, five home runs, 32 RBI and 15 stolen bases. He added 15 multi-hit games including a season-high three hits on four different occasions.
Newell and Isom-McCall are the first Lindenwood baseball players to win an "Of the Year" award since the Lions joined the Conference three years ago.
Anderson, now in his 10th year with the program, guided Eastern Illinois to its first OVC regular season championship since 2009. The Panthers dropped only one OVC series during the year (losing a pair of one-run games at SEMO) and led the team to 14 victories in the final 17 games of the regular season. That included a three-game sweep of Western Illinois the final weekend as the Panthers secured the title and No. 1 seed for the OVC Tournament. During the season EIU ranked second in the OVC in both team batting average (.292) and team E.R.A. (4.88). With one more overall win on the season the team will reach the 30-win plateau for the third time in the past four seasons. Anderson is the second EIU skipper to be named OVC Coach of the Year (Jim Schmitz won the award in 1998, 1999 and 2001).
2025 All-OVC Baseball Teams and Award Winners
OVC Player of the Year: Mack Whitcomb (C), Tennessee Tech
OVC Pitcher of the Year: Josh Newell (RHP), Lindenwood
OVC Freshman of the Year: Charlie Isom-McCall (2B), Lindenwood
OVC Coach of the Year: Jason Anderson, Eastern Illinois
ALL-OVC FIRST TEAM
C - Mack Whitcomb, Tennessee Tech
1B - Ryan Niedzwiedz, SIUE
2B - Mack Mitchell, SIUE
SS - Chase Bloomer, SIUE
3B - Mike O'Conor, Eastern Illinois
OF - Cole Warehime, Southeast Missouri
OF - Daniel Gierer, SIUE
OF - Khi Holiday, Southern Indiana
DH - Cole Kitchens, Southern Indiana
UT - Jorsixt Jimenez, Tennessee Tech
SP - Josh Newell, Lindenwood
SP - Nathan Mertens, Southeast Missouri
SP - Tyler Kapraun, Eastern Illinois
RP - Jackson Kranawetter, Southeast Missouri
RP - Juan Vargas, Tennessee Tech
ALL-OVC SECOND TEAM
C - Hunter Thomas, Morehead State
1B - Sam Grunberg, Lindenwood
2B - Cooper Chaplain, Little Rock
SS - Clayton Slack, Southern Indiana
3B - Parker Martin, Southern Indiana
OF - Nicho Jordan, Tennessee Tech
OF - Jackson Green, Tennessee Tech
OF - Kam Edwards, Lindenwood
DH - Peeko Townsend, UT Martin
UT - Ryan Geck, Little Rock
UT - Liam Bushey, Western Illinois
SP - Haden Dow, Southeast Missouri
SP - Tyler Conklin, Eastern Illinois
SP - Spencer Stearns, SIUE
RP - Bennett Stice, Lindenwood
RP - Liam McKillop, SIUE
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
OF - Jake Ottensmeier, Eastern Illinois
1B/DH - James Love, Eastern Illinois
2B - Charlie Isom-McCall, Lindenwood
C - Cade Martin, Little Rock
UTIL - Caden Sheridan, Morehead State
LHP - Kamden Hawks, Morehead State
RHP - Tim Teixeira, SIUE
RHP - Brady Watts, Southern Indiana
RHP - Logan Moller, Tennessee Tech
SS - Owen Lee, Tennessee Tech
OF - Landon Smelser, Tennessee Tech
SS - Cameron Greene, UT Martin
SS - Kenny Perez, Western Illinois
Note: There are 2 UTIL on the second-team due to ties in voting.