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When it came to choosing the Player and Pitcher of the Year for The Daily Standard's 2025 Baseball Dream Team, milestones played a big part in the choices.
Celina catcher Nick Steinbrunner rewrote the record book, earning him the Player of the Year honors.
Minster pitching ace Louis Magoto was nearly unhittable for most of the season, with four postseason wins, three being shutouts, leading to the program's fourth state championship. That earned the senior Pitcher of the Year honors.
The quiet leadership of Minster's Mike Wiss in guiding the Wildcats to the Division VII state title makes him the perfect choice for Coach of the Year.
The Daily Standard 2025 Baseball Player of the Year is Nick Steinbrunner, Celina. Stats: 448 batting average, 33 runs, 25 stolen bases
Since making his varsity debut as a freshman, Nick Steinbrunner caught fans' attention early on with his ability to cut down runners trying to steal, throwing out 16 of 41 runners while also sporting a .311 batting average.
Then his hitting, along with a general knack of getting on base and coming around to score, began to pick up.
Steinbrunner shined at the plate during his senior season, batting .448, the ninth-highest in the Celina record book. His 43 base hits ranks fourth-most for a season, while he set a new school record with 25 stolen bases. In his final game of his high school career, Steinbrunner passed Travis Boley to become Celina's all-time leading hitter with 123 base hits. Steinbrunner also broke the career stolen base record, finishing with 64. Steinbrunner finished his career ranked fourth with a .481 on-base percentage, career average (.392) and On Base Plus Slugging (OPS) (.937). Steinbrunner's 50 career walks and 82 career runs each rank fifth all-time, respectively.
Defensively, Steinbrunner only had four passed balls during his career and nine total errors. Steinbrunner also threw out 38 base stealers out of 122 attempts for a 31.1% career percentage.
Steinbrunner earned first team All-Western Buckeye League honors three times and was selected first team All-Ohio in Division III by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association this season.
The Daily Standard 2025 Baseball Pitcher of the Year is Louis Magoto, Minster. Stats: 9-2, 0.71 ERA. 105 strikeouts
Since breaking into the varsity pitching rotation as a sophomore Louis Magoto has been the constant for Minster. In 2023 and 2024, Magoto was 12-3 and averaged just over a strikeout per inning pitched.
This season, Magoto was nearly unhittable, not allowing an earned run until his May 17 start against Marion Local, just his second loss of the season after losing a 1-0 decision to Coldwater in which Coldwater won on an unearned run. Magoto earned his second straight Midwest Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year honors in allowing just four earned runs in the regular season.
Then came the postseason, starting with an 11-strikeout no-hit performance against Temple Christian in the sectional final. His next start came against Delphos St. John's at the district final at Elida. Magoto pitched a two-hitter in outdueling Cam Elwer for a 1-0 win. At the regional, Magoto had to come in to get the final out against New Riegel to preserve a 9-8 win to reach the regional final. One day later, Magoto pitched his second tournament no-hitter in beating Montpelier 3-0 at Bowling Green to reach the state final four for the first time since 2019.
After starting the sectional, district and regional finals, Magoto got the start for the Division VII state semifinal against Russia. The Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Magoto had to throw a pitch. Magoto then scattered six hits and allowed three runs as Minster won 5-3 to advance to the title game, which Minster won 8-0 over Newark Catholic.
Magoto, who received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, finished the season with a 9-2 record and an ERA of 0.71. In 69 winnings, Magoto struck out 105 batters to earn first team All-Ohio honors in Division VII.
The Daily Standard 2025 Baseball Coach of the Year is Mike Wiss, Minster. Stats: 26-6, 6-3 MAC, Division VII State Champions
From his first practice of the season, which was delayed after coaching the girls basketball team to the Division VI state semifinals, Mike Wiss had a feeling his baseball team could make a great run.
The previous summer, Minster battled through and won two extra inning games to capture the program's first ever ACME Baseball Congress title in Coldwater with a win over Van Wert.
The majority of the summer Cats were in the varsity lineup this spring. Minster opened the season with seven straight wins before losing a league game to Versailles. Then after losing to Anna, Minster won eight straight before losing three in a row. After losing 15-2 to Marion Local in the final MAC game of the season to finish conference play at 6-3, Minster went on a final win streak.
Minster had three shutouts to start the postseason, winning 25-0 over Temple Christan, 13-0 over USV and then 1-0 over Delphos St. John's in the district final. After hanging on for a 9-8 win over New Riegel, Louis Magoto pitched his third shutout and second no-hitter of the postseason with a 3-0 win over Montpelier.
At Canal Park in Arkon, Magoto struck out 12 in the Wildcats' 5-3 win over Russia in the state semifinals, then in the state title game over Newark Catholic, Caleb Couse pitched five strong innings to earn his sixth win of the season and then James Niemeyer closed the door as the Wildcats won their fourth state title in school history with an 8-0 shutout of the Green Wave.
