FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Contact: Matt Bomberg, President, Great Lakes Division
Rawlings ‘Big Stick’ Award Winners Announced
J.T. Schwartz from the Loggers tops the list with .378 average
Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award. This award is given to the player at each position who had the best batting average during the 2019 regular season.
La Crosse Loggers first baseman J.T. Schwartz leads the list of award winners. Schwartz earned a Rawlings “Big Stick” by leading the league with an impressive .378 batting average.
Rawlings has been rewarding the top hitters in the Northwoods League since 2007 in addition to honoring the best fielders since 2002. To honor their achievement, the nine award winners will receive an engraved bat from Rawlings. The complete list of 2019 Rawlings “Big Stick” Award Winners is below.
| Position | Player | NWL Team | College | Batting Average |
| C | Logan Michaels | Madison | Virginia | .354 |
| 1B | J.T. Schwartz | La Crosse | UCLA | .378 |
| 2B | Matt Bottcher | Eau Claire | Illinois-Chicago | .367 |
| 3B | Adam Frank | Wisconsin | Fairleigh Dickinson | .348 |
| SS | Evan Berkey | Rochester | Cal State Bakersfield | .358 |
| INF | Justice Bigbie | Madison | Western Carolina | .346 |
| OF | Richie Schiekofer | Wisconsin Rapids | Rutgers | .325 |
| OF | Brandon Seltzer | Wisconsin | Palm Beach Atlantic | .325 |
| OF | T.J. Reeves | Wisconsin | Alabama | .324 |
| DH | Jake Thompson | Lakeshore | Kentucky | .355 |
To be eligible a player would have needed to have enough plate appearances to qualify for a batting title. A player must have a minimum of 2.7 plate appearances per team game.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 26th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 230 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG), World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS) and MLB All-Stars Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (MIA). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.