News release
Lewis & Clark College baseball junior Bret Potter became the second player in program history to be named an All-American during the Division III Era last week, when D3baseball.com announced its All-American Teams, according to a news release from the college.
Potter, a West Ranch High School alum, carved out a spot on the All-American Third Team as the Utility selection. He joins assistant coach Jack Thomson (’23) as the only players in program history to be named All-Americans since the school moved to the NCAA DIII level in the late 1990s. He is the 11th player in program history to earn All-American accolades and the first to earn Third Team All-American honors. The junior is the only Northwest Conference player to be recognized this season and one of six players from Region 10 to be honored.
Potter earned the award after putting together a career year at the plate and on the mound. The Santa Clarita native started all 41 games in the outfield in either center or right field.
He posted a line of .396/.466/.515 and broke the program record with 67 hits in 169 at-bats. Potter tacked on eight doubles, four home runs, 34 runs scored, 30 RBI and led the team with 87 total bases. He tied for the team lead with eight hit by pitches and tacked on 15 walks. The junior outfielder also finished second on the team with 13 steals in 15 attempts. Defensively, Potter led the team with four outfield assists and notched 100 putouts and a .981 fielding percentage.
He also served as the team’s closer for the first time in his career. Potter posted a team-high five saves and team-best 2.50 ERA in 14 appearances out of the pen. The junior finished 2-1 with 17 strikeouts and just seven walks allowed in 18 innings of work. He limited opponents to a .229 batting average against.
Potter paced the team with 22 multiple-hit games and notched 10 games with three hits. He posted a 14-game hitting streak and recorded the longest streak of reaching base on the team (26 games). He ended the year with eight multi-RBI contests – including three games with three or more RBI. On the mound, he struck out multiple batters in seven of his 14 outings and threw at least an inning 12 times. The junior closer went two innings in four of his final six appearances of the season.
He opened the season red-hot. Potter went 9-19 with three RBI and a pair of saves in California, to help Lewis & Clark open the season with a 2-2 weekend split.
In the opening weekend of conference play, Potter came through with the go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning in a 7-6 win over Pacific Lutheran University. Potter added a career-high four RBI, including the game-winning RBI, in a 7-6 win over Whitman University on March 21. He would finish the three-game, NWC series sweep against the Blues 7-13 with five runs and five RBI to earn NWC Position Player of the Week accolades.
Potter earned his first win of the season in the River Otters’ 9-8 win over No. 12 Pomona-Pitzer. He came on in the eighth inning and allowed one unearned run, to help Lewis & Clark knock off the Sagehens.
The junior came through with a huge series against Willamette University to help Lewis & Clark clinch a playoff spot in the NWC Tournament. He went 11-19 with seven runs and six RBI against the Bearcats and posted the walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning of game three.
In the Northwest Conference Tournament, Potter went 3-5 with a run scored, an RBI, a double and a home run in his playoff debut. With his three hits, he broke L&C Hall of Famer Scott Russell’s (’90) record for most hits in a single season.
