APPLETON, Wis. -- Lawrence University's Chris Krepline has been named Region 9 Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
    This is the third Coach of the Year Award for Krepline, who also was chosen as region Coach of the Year by D3baseball.com and named Midwest Conference Coach of the Year.
    Krepline coached the Vikings to a school-record 26 victories, and the team finished with a 26-13 overall record.
    Lawrence won its first Midwest Conference title since 1980 and captured the Midwest Conference Tournament title as well. Lawrence received an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament and played in the national tourney for the first time since 1979.
    In his fourth season at Lawrence, Krepline rebuilt the squad during the pandemic. The team won just five games in his first season in 2019 and the 2020 season was limited to just four games due to COVID. The team starting building momentum with a 15-19 record in 2021 before the breakout season this spring.
    The Vikings started the 2022 season with a 5-5 nonconference record before getting things rolling against Midwest Conference team. Lawrence went 18-6 in league play and posted a sparkling 11-1 record against the three other teams, Illinois College, the University of Chicago and Ripon College, that reached the conference tournament. Lawrence went 3-0 during the league tournament and collected 11 come-from-behind victories this season, including two in the conference tourney.
    Lawrence had one player, outfielder Jacob Charon, receive All-America honors, and Charon, Quinn Berglin, Parker Knoll and Taylor Freeman all received all-region honors. Seven Vikings, Charon, Berglin, Knoll, Freeman, Michael Duttlinger, Zach Leslie and Jeffery Cambra, were chosen for the All-Midwest Conference team.