D3baseball.com All-Midwest Region | Complete Regional Lists
 
WINONA, Minn. — Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) capped a remarkable collegiate career for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team by going 2-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored in the Cardinals' regular-season finale against Bethel on May 7.
 
Yet, while his record-setting playing career may have come to an end against the Royals, Buerkle's post-season award party is just getting warmed up.
 
Buerkle, who was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 Team for the third straight year earlier this month, picked up yet another post-season honor on Tuesday, as the senior outfielder was named D3baseball.com First-Team All-Midwest Region.
 
Buerkle is one of just two players from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference named to the 14-player All-Midwest Region First Team, being joined by Wyatt Ulrich of Saint John's, who was also named the region's Rookie of the Year.
 
It's the third straight year Buerkle has been recognized by D3baseball.com—he was a First-Team All-Midwest Region selection as a sophomore in 2015, while landing Third-Team honors a year ago.
 
In his final year in a Cardinal uniform, Buerkle started all 39 games—all in center field—hitting a team-leading .405 (53-for-153). He also led or shared the team lead in runs (39), hits (53), doubles (13), total bases (92), slugging percentage (.702), walks (31)—including 18 in his last 14 games—and on-base percentage (.524). Defensively, Buerkle was near-perfect from his position in center field, making just two errors in 112 chances (.982 fielding percentage), while collecting 105 putouts and adding five assists.
 
Buerkle, who opened each of his four collegiate seasons with hits in at least 10 consecutive games, was held off the base paths just twice this season—failing to reach base in Game 1 against UW-Oshkosh on April 2 and in Game 2 vs. St. Thomas on April 13. Buerkle recorded at least one hit in 30 of the team's 39 games this season and closed out his career having collected at least one hit in 140 of the 158 games he played in—while reaching base safely in 153 of those 158 games.
 
Buerkle concluded his four-year Saint Mary's career as the program's all-time hits leader with 233, while also owning career records in doubles (51), triples (13), runs (162), RBIs (150), and games played (158). Just one of two players in program history with more than 200 career hits—and the only one with 50 or more hits in all four seasons—Buerkle's .413 career batting average is second only to Tim Piechowski's program-record .417 mark.
 
Concordia-Chicago's Bryan VanDuser was named the Midwest Region's Player of the Year, while UW-Whitewater's Heath Renz was selected Pitcher of the Year, and Warhawks' head coach John Vodenlich was tabbed Coach of the Year.
 
The 2017 season marks the sixth year that D3baseball.com has named All-Region teams, with 800 players nominated this year. The ballots were made available to SIDs, who—along with D3baseball.com staff and contributors—voted for a predetermined number of players in their respective region.