Minot and Wausau announcers take home honors
Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League has announced Owen Patterson of the Minot Hot Tots and Matt Clark of the Wausau Woodchucks have been named the 2025 Northwoods League Baseball TV Announcers of the Year. Owen Patterson of the Minot Honeybees was named the 2025 Northwoods League Softball TV Announcer of the Year.
“Similar to the plethora of Northwoods League alumni that are selected in the MLB Draft and move onto professional baseball, the League is seeing similar production with our TV announcers,” said Dominic Etue, Director of Business Development for the Northwoods League. “Several Northwoods League broadcasting alumni are making up the different levels of Minor League Baseball as well as other Professional Leagues, which is incredible to see. The amount of talent coming into the League continues to ascend every season. I want to congratulate Owen and Matt on their outstanding summers, demonstrating incredible attention to detail every single game and showing off their impressive talent throughout their broadcasts.”
Patterson, a junior at Minot State University, returned for his second season as Minot’s TV announcer. He has been on the call for over 100 Northwoods League broadcasts the last two seasons, as the main play-by-play announcer for both the Minot Honeybees and the Minot Hot Tots.
Clark, a senior at the University of Missouri, joined the Wausau Woodchucks for his 1st season as their TV announcer, serving as the main broadcaster for all Woodchucks home games and occasionally joining as the color commentator for the Wausau Ignite softball games. Clark was selected to be part of the broadcast team for both the 2025 Northwoods League Home Run Challenge and the Northwoods League All-Star Game. Both Patterson and Clark were selected to be broadcasters during the 2025 Northwoods League Playoffs, pairing together for the Northwoods League Summer Collegiate World Series Championship Game.
“I thank the Minot organization and Northwoods League for the opportunity to continue to share my passion for baseball and softball to our fanbase. The growth shown by the Honeybees and Hot Tots this past summer made my job even more fun than it already is.” said Patterson.
Clark commented “Broadcasting with the Wausau Woodchucks in the Northwoods League has been one of the highlights of my career. This honor is not a reflection on me, but rather of the hard work our entire crew in Wausau put in every single day to produce outstanding broadcasts. In addition, I’m so thankful to the many other broadcasters in this league who I got to share this past summer with. Together, we showcased summer collegiate baseball at the highest possible level, and I’m proud to have been a part of it.”
The Northwoods League continued to partner with ESPN+, streaming over 170 games on the platform this season. The League saw over 1-million unique viewers tune in for live game coverage and totaled over 40-million minutes watched between the League’s NWL+ platform and ESPN+ throughout the summer.
In addition to games on ESPN, the Northwoods League offered its streaming service Free to the viewing public once again in 2025, which included games streamed live and on-demand.
Fans can watch Northwoods League games on their own televisions using Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku and Android TV, in addition to being able to watch them on their PC, mobile device or tablet.
Northwoods League teams recruit talented individuals for their video production teams every season, many of which are in excellent college broadcasting programs at top level colleges. These webcasting teams consist of directors, announcers, producers, and camera operators, all of which must work together to produce and stream quality games for the viewers.
###
The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 32nd season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in history with 25 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, nearly 2400 NWL alums have been drafted and over 410 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TOR), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford and World Series Champion and Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, MLB All-Star, MLB Gold Glove, two-time Silver Slugger winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). League games are viewable live on Northwoods League+ (at watch.northwoodsleague.com) and ESPN+.
Leveraging the 32-year success of the Northwoods League, the first for-profit Summer Collegiate Baseball League, Northwoods League Softball (NWLS) is the first for-profit Women’s Summer Collegiate Softball League which began play in the Upper Midwest in the summer of 2024. The purpose of the League will be to develop players for their college, Olympic and future professional play. Teams will be promoted similar to minor league baseball teams, playing games in front of fans in a fun, friendly, family-oriented environment.