South Bend's Brandon Terry, Twin Branch's Lucas Oletti Win 2023 MVP Awards

Throughout the week, we have been announcing the winners of each regular season award voted on by all eighteen Managers. A player/Manager received 3 points for a 1st place vote, 2 points for a 2nd place vote, and 1 point for a 3rd place vote. Today we conclude Awards week by announcing the 2023 American and National League Most Valuable Player Award winners.

Starting off in the American League, it was the 2019 National League MVP Brandon Terry who takes home honors for the 2nd time. After entering the league as a Rookie in 2019, Terry took the league by by storm as he went onto to win the 2019 National League Rookie of the Year and MVP award. He becomes just the 5th player in ORWBL history to win multiple MVP awards as he joins Garrett Curless (3) Scott Soos (2) Denis Jedrysek (2) and Tony Koch (2).

In 2022, Terry and the South Bend Truffle Butter broke through to win their first ORWBL World Series title as they are now hoping to repeat as Champions. It has been a special season for South Bend as they aim to defend their World Series crown. They finished the year with a 24-6 record, earning the top seed in the American League for the 2nd straight season.

It was a fantastic season for the now 2x MVP as he finished tied for the league lead in Home Runs with Green Stem's Andy Sieradzki. He finished with the 2nd highest Batting Average in all of ORWBL, boasting a .620 Average which was just a tick below Austin Traxler's league leading .624 AVG.

He led all of ORWBL in Runs scored with 79 while finishing tied for 3rd in RBI with 72. He finished ranked in the top 3 in every hitting category and was able to do all of that in 27 games as he missed the first series of the season. For most of the season, he battled with Lakeport's Austin Traxler for the top spot in each category as those two separated themselves in the voting in a year where there were a handful of legitimate MVP candidates on the American League side.

Moving over to the National League side, we saw Twin Branch star outfielder Lucas Oletti take home MVP honors for the first time in his career. Oletti's 2023 season had MVP written all over it as he won the 2023 National League Triple Crown after leading the NL in HR (48) RBI (66) Batting Average (.579) while also leading the NL in Runs (65) just for good measure. He went toe to toe with Kounty Line's Adin Newman for most of the season, but was able to pull ahead of him down the final stretch.

He went 84/145 at the plate and was able to earn Triple Crown honors even after missing 3 games in the season. Oletti was elected as a started for the National League All Star team as it was truly an elite breakout season for the star. Oletti was a top tier player but it was only a matter of time before he put together a season like he did in 2023.

He became the first ORWBL player to win Triple Crown honors since County Line's JP Kehoe did it on the American League side in 2020. Oletti's level of play helped propel the Twin Branch Billy Goats to new heights as they became the first non Granger Panthers National League regular season champion since Granger entered the league back in 2017.

Although Oletti and the Billy Goats season ended earlier than they had hoped, it was still a memorable season for the guys over in Twin Branch as this is the 2nd award won by a member of the Billy Goats this week. That officially concludes our 2023 Regular season awards week ahead of LCS weekend!

Below are the full results for the 2023 American and National League MVP Awards. All of the Managers ballots will be posted in full sometime next week.

American League MVP Award Final Results:

1st: Brandon Terry: 36 (Truffle Butter)

2nd: Austin Traxler: 29 (Bombers)

3rd: Andy Sieradzki: 14 (Godfathers)

4th: Ethan Bumgardner: 12 (Magic)

5th: Walter Griffin III: 8 (Truffle Butter)

6th: Aiden Traxler: 5 (Bombers)

7th: DJ Hill: 4 (Wildcards)

National League MVP Award Final Results:

1st: Lucas Oletti: 47 (Billy Goats)

2nd: Adin Newman: 29 (Knights)

3rd: JP Kehoe: 12 (Newts)