Waterloo, IA – On Thursday, Aug. 7, the Waterloo Bucks announced outfielders Jake Bechtel (University of North Carolina Wilmington) and Larry Edwards (McNeese State University) as the club’s 2025 Waterloo Bucks Player of the Year Award co-recipients as voted on by the Waterloo faithful. This year marks the first time the team has ever given the award to multiple players for the same season.

Bechtel leads the Bucks in a number of offensive and defensive categories, including home runs (12), runs batted in (61), SLG (.553), OPS (.950) and outfield assists (13). Becoming the first player in the Northwoods League to log 20 extra-base hits and 20 stolen bases in 2025, Bechtel earned a spot on the 2025 Great Plains Division All-Star team and in the 2025 NWL Home Run Derby.

His total of 12 home runs is just one shy of tying Zach Daeges (2005) and Peyton Williams (2020) for the most long balls in a single season by any Buck in the history of the organization. Additionally, his 61 runs batted in rank second only to Adam McGinnis’ mark of 62 in 2016 in the Waterloo single-season category. That tally also places him in third in the NWL for plating runs. His slugging percentage currently sits tenth in the Bucks’ single-season standings.

One of Bechtel’s finest moments of the season played out on Monday, June 9, when the righty slugger mashed a three-run walk-off blast to bolster the Bucks to a 7-5 victory over the Rochester Honkers in game one of a doubleheader.

As for Edwards, with this honor, he becomes the inaugural Buck to receive this award consecutively. A fan favorite in the city of Waterloo, Edwards led the squad in runs (60), doubles (16) and steals (65).

His stolen base sum eclipsed Chandler Simpson’s 2021 total of 55 with the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders to give him the NWL single-season stolen base record. With 88 career swipes, Edwards now pulls within two stolen bases of Joey Bonadonna’s all-time NWL record of 90. In the runs category, Edwards is now two scores away from tying the single-season Bucks’ record of 62 set by Chesny Young in 2013.

Edwards also attained the longest on-base streak of the season for Waterloo by reaching safely in 27 consecutive contests. Right before the streak ended, the stretch was the longest active run in the NWL.