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SPRINGFIELD – Drake Baldwin, Adam Link and Spencer Nivens earned Missouri State Baseball’s team awards this season as voted on by their teammates, head coach Keith Guttin announced Thursday.
Baldwin was named the A.E. “Ted” Willis Most Valuable Player, Link earned the Dave Dickensheet Outstanding Pitcher Award, and Nivens is the Danny Cook Rookie of the Year.
Baldwin, a junior catcher from Madison, Wis., batted .341 with 19 home runs and 70 RBI for the Bears. The second-team all-Missouri Valley Conference selection had multiple hits 26 times and two-plus RBI on 17 occasions. Baldwin had three multi-homer games on the year, is MSU’s career fielding percentage leader at .994, and his 2022 RBI total ties for seventh in school history. Baldwin led the Bears with a .448 on-base percentage and reached safely in 57 of 60 contests, including a 30-game streak.
Link tied the Missouri State record for starts in a season with 17, going 6-5 with a 4.80 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 90 innings, which ranked third in the MVC. He was the MVC Pitcher of the Week on March 28 after throwing eight shutout innings and facing one batter over the minimum against Nevada. The Springfield native who returned home for his fifth and final collegiate season also tossed six innings for the win in the MVC title game against Southern Illinois on May 29.
Nivens is a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American and second-team all-MVC outfielder after leading Missouri State with a .346 batting average this season with 11 home runs and 52 RBI while starting all 60 games. The Columbia, Mo., native posted a .443 on-base percentage and reached safely in 56 of 60 contests, including a 30-game on-base streak along with hit streaks of 13 and 12 games. He had 24 multi-hit games and 15 multiple-RBI efforts in 2022 and finished the year in the top 10 in Missouri State history in single-season runs scored (t-4th, 71), walks (t-6th, 44) and singles (t-10th, 59). Two of his home runs led off games (April 3 at Samford, May 19 at Bradley).
Missouri State’s annual team awards are named in honor of three former Bears who made significant contributions to the University’s athletics programs. Ted Willis was an MSU football letterman in 1918, and the Bears’ team MVP award carries his name through a plaque donated by his widow in memory of his long-standing interest and support of MSU athletics. The Bears’ top rookie honor is named for Danny Cook, a standout third baseman for the Bears from 1966 through 1969 who died of leukemia in 1989. Finally, Dave Dickensheet is a Missouri State Athletics Hall of Famer who pitched for the Bears from 1979 through 1982 before succumbing to cancer in 1991.
