Dock Mennonite Academy’s Nathan Lapp is the Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery 2023 Baseball Player of the Year
All Nathan Lapp does is win.
The Dock Mennonite Academy senior shortstop and pitcher won three District 1 championships and two Bicentennial Athletic League championships in three years on the diamond. Also a star on the basketball court, Lapp led the Pioneers to two District 1 championships and three BAL championships in four years. He even joined the golf team as a senior and helped them win a league title.
Lapp’s resume features plenty of individual accomplishments as well. The perennial All-BAL selection was named the BAL’s Most Valuable Player in baseball and basketball. He qualified for districts in his only golf season. He holds a handful of program records for the basketball team, including points scored, and would have threatened some baseball records if he didn’t lose his freshman season to the COVID-19 pandemic. He’ll be playing baseball at Millersville University next year.
One more achievement to add — Lapp is The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media 2023 Baseball Player of the Year.
Lapp capped his high school career with a dominant season. The leadoff man batted .531 with 43 hits, 40 runs scored and 31 RBIs in 24 games. He totaled seven doubles, four triples and four home runs while working 15 walks and striking out just six times. He posted a 1.456 OPS.
“That shows you how good our lineup is,” Lapp said of his 31 RBIs from the No. 1 spot in the lineup. “If the leadoff hitter is getting RBIs that means the bottom of the order is getting on base, which on most teams doesn’t happen. Our lineup was really good this year. One through nine could just hit. It was crazy and if you look at our team averages it showed.
“I have to credit our coaches for (the offensive success) because we hit BP every day in practice. They always make sure that we’re ready to go before every game.”
Not only at the top of the batting order, Lapp was at the top of Dock’s pitching rotation. In 61 1/3 innings, the right-hander allowed 30 runs — 24 earned. He struck out 89 batters to nine walks and surrendered 64 hits.
His favorite moment from the season was, of course, a win. The Pioneers won a state playoff game for the first time in more than a decade when they beat Marian Catholic, 7-2, on June 5. Lapp went 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored and threw 5 2/3 innings on the mound. He allowed one run on seven hits with 11 strikeouts to two walks.
“Dock hasn’t won a states game in the last 14 years until this year,” Lapp, a 6-foot 170-pound Sellersville native, said. “That was one of our goals going in — to make it out of the first round of states because we haven’t done it in over a decade and we were able to do that. That was something that stuck out to me — and winning the district championship and beating Faith. It’s always great to beat Faith. It’s always a great feeling, especially in the district championship.”
Lapp struck out nine batters in the 5-3 win over rival Faith Christian Academy for the District 1-A title. He went 6 2/3 innings before reaching the 105-pitch limit.
Dock won another state game, 11-2 over Northeast Bradford in the quarterfinals, when Lapp went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. The Pioneers season ended in the state semifinals.
Lapp committed to Millersville last summer. He’ll leave basketball behind, a decision he made a while ago, and focus on playing shortstop for the Marauders.
“Millersville offered me and when I toured there I really liked the campus,” he said. “I liked the coaches and all the stuff they said about their program was really awesome.”
