The last time Ethan Kleinschmit stood on the mound for Linn-Benton Community College, he struck out eight batters in seven innings, playing a crucial role in the first of two victories against Tacoma to secure the 2024 NWAC Championship for the Roadrunners.
The next time he played in an official college game, it would be representing the Division I Oregon State Beavers, the team Kleinschmit grew up rooting for.
Pitching against the Big Ten’s Indiana Hoosiers on Feb. 17, Kleinschmit proved that he belonged in his Beaver debut. He didn’t allow a hit in six innings played, logging five strikeouts and his first career win for the Beavers.
“Heading into the 2025 college baseball season, Oregon State Beavers pitching coach Rich Dorman liked to say he had a ‘little secret’ on his staff,” wrote The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman following the game. “It came in a 6-foot-3, 200-pound, left-handed package, answered to the name Ethan Kleinschmit, and featured low-90s heat, pinpoint command and a unique, deceptive delivery that befuddled hitters since arriving on campus as a transfer from Linn-Benton Community College.”
While Kleinschmit might’ve been a secret to DI baseball before Sunday’s game, he was anything but to Beaks baseball fans and the NWAC in general, with the Mount Angel graduate earning first-team All-NWAC honors following his one-and-done freshman season in Albany.
Kleinschmit is an experienced winner. He’s won a championship in each of his last three years of baseball – two with Mount Angel in high school and one in 2024 with LBCC. “I just want to fill up the win column,” he told The Commuter in 2024 when asked about his personal goals. Ranked No. 7 in the nation with a 3-0 record to start the season, Kleinschmit and Beavers are on track to do exactly that in 2025.