The stats speak volumes about Casey Rother.

They’re loud. Hard to overlook. And in most cases unmatched.

And they haven’t gone unnoticed.

A former standout player at Tamaqua, Rother has enjoyed a decorated collegiate baseball career at Lehigh University.

His senior season concluded with an extraordinary distinction, as Rother was recently named a Third Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper when the publication announced its list.

Rother is the Lehigh baseball program’s eighth All-American all-time, and the first honoree since Mike Garzillo in 2015 (Baseball America), but is the first since Matt McBride in 2006 by Collegiate Baseball.

But numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. They couldn’t.

It’s what Rother does out of the spotlight that has helped him garner such attention.

“I’m incredibly honored,” said Rother. “It’s very humbling, to come from a small town like Tamaqua, it’s very nice to get some recognition. But all the hard work was done behind closed doors. It’s really nice to get noticed or recognized like that, but it’s very humbling.”

Rother joined the Third Team as a utility player, getting the selected based on both his hitting and pitching statistics.

Regardless of his situation, Rother’s approach has remained the same throughout his career.

“I always try to go day-by-day with stuff,” said Rother. “So even coming out of high school, I was very much looking forward to the next practice, the next game, whatever it was. So I rarely looked four years ahead; I never thought ... I didn’t write goals down that I needed to be All-American, I needed to be Patriot League Player of the Year or any of that. It was just sort of a culmination of each and every day going in and putting in the work. I never really expected anything like this to happen.

“I knew if I had a good work ethic then things should pay off on the ball field. But I never expected to get this kind of recognition.”

He became the first two-time Player of the Year since 1993-94 in the Patriot League when Navy’s Marcus Lee accomplished the feat.

Rother’s passion for the game started at a young age.

“My dad’s a huge baseball fan, he still plays today. My brother played baseball,” said Casey. “Growing up, I was always around the ball field. My dad just took me places. But I remember as a little kid I would ask my dad any day of the week, ‘Could we go hit?’ And he’d be like, ‘Sure.’ So he was definitely my biggest influence. He just showed me how beautiful the game was, and I just fell in love with it.”

The two-time reigning Patriot League Player of the Year had another stellar season at the plate this spring for the Mountain Hawks and was the most consistent arm out of the Lehigh bullpen throughout the year.

On the season, Rother hit .366 with 74 hits, 19 doubles, nine home runs and 50 RBIs over 50 games with a 1.028 OPS. He won the regular season Patriot League batting title with an average of .371 and his 50 RBIs led the league as well, locking up two-thirds of the league’s batting triple crown - teammate Adam Retzbach 11 home runs just edged him out in that category.

On the mound, Rother went 3-0 with two saves and an ERA of 1.65 - the lowest on the team.

“I like contributing any way that I can,” said Rother, who logged more time on the mound this spring than at any point in his career. “They saw an opportunity with me to pitch and I’d be the guy coming in from right field, not warming up at all and then I would just start chucking it. Turned out it worked out pretty well.

“Pitching was always a thing I would do on my own. Once you get to Lehigh, they bring in however many pitchers, so they get the first opportunity and I would always be the guy throwing a side-pen after practice. The way I pitch, I try to be more like a gritty guy, I don’t know, I think some pitchers nowadays are losing their grit, and when I come in from right field I just try to chuck it. So I think sort of that gamer mentality is what my coaches liked, I think that’s the biggest part of my pitching.”

He struck out 14 with three walks over 16.1 innings and 11 appearances.

“I think that’s where I sometimes separate myself because, at least with pitching, I take it very personally for some reason,” Rother said. “When someone is trying to get a hit off of me, or someone gets a hit, it hits me hard and I get really mad and upset. Hitting is a little bit different because you have to be contained and you have to be focused.

“But definitely on the mound is when I’m more intense. Hitting I would say is more controlled energy, controlled aggression.”

Rother’s 74 hits are the third-most in a single season in program history, slotting just behind Garzillo (75 in 2015) and McBride (88 in 2006).

He is the only Patriot League player in 2022 to earn an All-America nod from Collegiate Baseball and is the first player overall since Navy’s Noah Song in 2019.

Rother flourished on and off the field at Lehigh.

“It’s a very tight-knit group,” said Rother. “We’re very much a family at Lehigh, throughout the whole school, that’s what it is. It’s a smaller school, and it’s very close to home for me, so it was very much like a home environment for me.

“Starting with the coaches, and any teammate that I had, they’re all brothers. It’s just definitely a family atmosphere.”

Rother is playing locally this summer with the Northern Yankees of the Blue Mountain League, joined by teammate Gerard Sweeney and assistant coach and Lehighton graduate Jacen Nalesnik. Rother was named Most Valuable Player of the BML in 2019 after batting .469 with 45 hits and 24 RBIs in 30 games.

He played for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League last summer.

“It’s cool being close to home,” said Rother. “They’re my guys. I have graduate classes starting in July, so I kind of had to be in the area, and that’s just how it worked out. But it’s great seeing the guys again.”

A three-sport athlete at Tamaqua who also participated in basketball and football, Rother led the Blue Raiders to the PIAA District 11 3A baseball title and an appearance in the state playoffs in 2017 when he hit 472 (34-for-72) with 10 doubles, in addition to a pair of home runs and 20 RBIs.

Rother’s abilities and his work ethic have been undeniable throughout his career.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see those attributes rewarded once again during next month’s Major League Baseball Draft.

“I talked to my coach the other day,” Rother said of the event. “I’ve done everything I could. I feel content with everything. My coach said that maybe in a couple of weeks when things start picking up I might get some phone calls and stuff. But it’s out of my hands. There’s not really anything I can do anymore, so whatever happens, happens.”

What he’s already done won’t soon be forgotten.