{"id":142875,"date":"2025-06-09T12:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=142875"},"modified":"2025-06-09T12:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:41:06","slug":"andrew-woitas-named-head-coach-of-gustavus-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/andrew-woitas-named-head-coach-of-gustavus-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Woitas Named Head Coach of Gustavus Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SAINT PETER, Minn. \u2013\u00a0Andrew Woitas<\/a><\/dfn>\u00a0<\/span>’10, associate head coach of the Gustavus baseball team for the last two seasons and primary assistant for the six years prior, was named the Gusties’ head baseball coach on Monday, June 9.<\/p>\n

Woitas replaces Brad Baker ’80 HOF ’98, who retired following 11 seasons with a 246-136 (.664) record.<\/p>\n

During Woitas’ tenure on the Gustavus staff, the Gusties have posted a 189-91 record and claimed three regular season championships in six competitive seasons (2019, 2023, 2025), as well as the program’s first playoff title and NCAA appearance this past spring.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited and grateful to be the next Gustavus baseball head coach,” said Woitas. “I would like to thank Tom Brown for this opportunity and Brad Baker for hiring me as an assistant coach, as well as being a great mentor to me.<\/p>\n

“Gustavus baseball stands on a firm foundation, and our coaching staff looks forward to continuing the momentum and elevating the program to new heights. Most of all, I’m excited to work with the amazing student-athletes and help them succeed on the field, in the classroom and in life.”<\/p>\n

Woitas, a 2010 Gustavus graduate and four-year member of the baseball team, played 143 games for the Black & Gold, starting in 105 between pitching and the outfield. He earned All-MIAC honors in his senior season after starting all 38 games as a two-way player, batting .406 with 52 hits, seven doubles, three triples and 65 total bases. He ended his career with a .314 average (128-for-408), 66 runs, 15 doubles, four triples, and 68 RBI.<\/p>\n

“Andrew has been instrumental in the success of the Gustavus baseball program,” said Baker. “He is a tireless worker who not only cares about his student-athletes, but will passionately drive their development on and off the field. Gustavus is very fortunate to have Andrew as their next head baseball coach.”<\/p>\n

Following graduation with a degree in finance, Woitas spent seven years as an assistant coach for Minnetonka High School. During that time, he also coached a youth traveling team, the Minnesota Blizzard, which he continues to be involved with. Woitas also serves as the owner and lead instructor of 507 Baseball Academy, Southern Minnesota’s premier baseball training academy.<\/p>\n

“We are thrilled to name\u00a0Andrew Woitas<\/a><\/dfn>\u00a0as the next head coach of Gustavus baseball,” said Gustavus director of athletics Tom Brown. “Andrew has spent the past eight years learning and leading under Brad Baker. His deep understanding of our program, values and student-athlete experience makes him the ideal person to carry this tradition forward. He brings a steady presence, a strong baseball mind and a deep commitment to developing our student-athletes on and off the field. We’re excited for the future of Gustavus baseball under his leadership.”<\/p>\n

A native of Sleepy Eye, Minn., Woitas is the 25th head coach in program history, but just the third in the last 28 years. He and his wife, Bridget (Burtzel) ’09, live in Saint Peter and have three daughters, Olivia, Emma, and Claire.<\/p>\n

Gustavus finished first in the MIAC for the third time in the last six competitive seasons with a 17-3 record (37-9 overall) and won its first MIAC playoff title this spring. The Gusties were selected to host a four-team regional in the team’s NCAA tournament debut, winning its first game, before dropping to the elimination bracket where the season ended with a pair of losses.<\/p>\n

In the regular season, Gustavus led the MIAC in batting average (.349), doubles (96), hits (504), home runs (40), on-base percentage (.443), runs (396), scoring margin (+9.2), slugging percentage (.519), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.57), strikeouts per nine innings (8.5), walks per nine innings (3.32), and winning percentage (.837). The Gusties’ .349 batting average ranked fourth in Division III, while their slugging percentage was 11th, on-base percentage 12th, and 504 hits 13th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAINT PETER, Minn. \u2013\u00a0Andrew Woitas\u00a0’10, associate head coach of the Gustavus baseball team for the last two seasons and primary assistant for the six years prior, was named the Gusties’ head baseball coach on Monday, June 9. Woitas replaces Brad Baker ’80 HOF ’98, who retired following 11 seasons with a 246-136 (.664) record. During …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-09 12:36:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142877,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142875\/revisions\/142877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}