AUSTIN, Texas – After helping lead the MACU baseball team to the 2023 NCCAA World Series title late last month, junior pitcher Kelton Lachelt earned one of the most distinguished honors of his two-year Evangels career as the Evangels closer was selected to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) NAIA Academic All-America Second Team on Wednesday.
To be considered for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be at least a junior by academic standing and maintain at least 3.50 cumulative grade-point average while performing at a high level of excellence in the student-athlete's respective sport. The recipients are selected from the CSC Academic All-District list and are voted upon by the CSC members.
A 6-1 righty from Henderson, Nevada, Lachelt put together one of the best seasons for a MACU bullpen pitcher in program history, finishing the year with a 5-1 record and turned in MACU's first 10-save season while posting a 3.00 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP with just three walks issued to 19 strikeouts over 33 innings of work in 21 appearances.
His 10 saves marked the second-most closeouts for a pitcher in the NAIA while also notching several MACU NAIA Era record marks in the single-season books, turning in the fifth-most appearances, eighth-best WHIP, the ninth-best ERA and the ninth-most wins.
Lachelt saved his best performances of the year for last as he tallied three consecutive saves in the NCCAA World Series at the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy from May 19-23. In the three outings, Lachelt allowed no runs on just four hits and one hit-by-pitch with no walks and two strikeouts over 4.2 innings of relief. His save in MACU's 6-3 win over Southwestern Christian on May 22 locked up a spot in the NCCAA National Championship game for the Evangels.
As great as Lachelt has been on the bump, his best work has come in the classroom as the Business & Ethics major has compiled a 4.00 cumulative GPA to earn NAIA and NCCAA Scholar-Athlete honors in back-to-back seasons at MACU.
In his two seasons with the Evangels, Lachelt has already posted some of the best results for a MACU closer in the history of the program, notching a 12-6 record with 14 saves with a 3.87 ERA over 76.2 innings. Lachelt is already the program's career saves record holder and is just one victory away from tying Keisy Portorreal's (2018-20) career wins record at 13.
Lachelt was one of three standout student-athletes from the MACU baseball team that earned Academic All-District acclaim on May 16 as Lachelt was joined alongside junior starting pitcher Cameron Brown and junior outfielder Caden Harris.
Overall, Mid-America Christian completed its best season since joining the NAIA in 2008, amassing a 39-17 overall record, breaking both the single season wins (39) and win percentage at .696 (excluding COVID-19 impacted 2020 season). The Evangels also posted its best ever record in Sooner Athletic Conference play, finishing with a 15-9 league mark.
