‘Excited for baseball’
Mason Cox setting his slugging goals at Martin Luther College
before him, Mason Cox
could have left town to
continue his schooling and
athletic career upon graduation
from Minnesota Valley
Lutheran in 2020.
But the opportunity to achieve his goals
in a city he’s called home since he was 8
years old was too great for him to pass up.
Cox was born in Niles, Michigan, and
lived in St. Joseph, Michigan, before moving
to New Ulm in the summer of 2008.
He began his freshman year of college
at Martin Luther College in the fall of
2020. After being denied his senior year
of baseball at MVL due to the COVID-19
shutdown, Cox was able to continue his
baseball career in the spring of 2021 with
the MLC Knights.
Cox did get some summer ball opportunities
in 2020, and when the 2021 college
season began, he didn’t miss a chance to
make an early impact. In 2021, he hit .313
in 21 games for the Knights, along with
three doubles, a triple, a homer and five
RBIs.
But this past season, a “sophomore
slump” anything but described Cox’s play.
Cox ended his 2022 season with a teambest
.476 batting average, a .540 on-base
percentage (OBP) and .629 slugging percentage.
He also led the team in home runs
(2) and doubles (10).
His batting average and OBP were also
single-season records for MLC.
“Before the year even started, I didn’t
even look at any records,” Cox said. “I was
just excited for baseball. And I had a really
good spring trip in Florida, and kind of
around three-quarters of the way through
the season I looked at the records and I saw
I was on a really good track, had a really
good season going so far. And I looked at
a couple of them and was, like, ‘I’m gonna
make some goals right here.’ And my first
goal was the batting average one. Right
away I was, like, ‘I’ve got to keep my hits
going for my team and also try to reach the
individual goal.’ Right away with that one
came the on-base one, and then I looked
at the hits and kind of kept them as a side
goal, but at the same time I wanted to
focus on having fun as a team, winning as
a group and didn’t want to become an individual
player by any means.
“Then my teammates got a hold of
the stats, too, and they were the ones that
would actually make sure I wouldn’t put so
much pressure on myself. So towards the
end of the year when I was getting close to
breaking records … say I would go 0 for 3
or I wouldn’t get a hit, you could see frustration
in my eyes, and they were always,
like, ‘Hey, you’re a great player, trust it,’
and then I’d go up there more relaxed. So I
can’t thank my teammates enough.”
Cox, who plans to become a teacher
after finishing college, was very familiar
with MLC before choosing to attend school
there.
And his familiarity with the school was
more than just knowing it was a Lutheran
college in town as his parents have been
staples at MLC for more than a decade.
His mom Becky Cox recently concluded
a 13-year career as MLC’s head volleyball
coach in 2021.
And his dad Randy Cox just finished
his 13th year as the school’s head baseball
coach.
Having his dad be his head coach in college
hasn’t been a huge change for Mason
Cox, and it’s not a big surprise as he’s been
coached by his dad since he could throw
a baseball. The main difference is the experience
gained since then and the level of
play.
“He never treats me any differently from
any of the other players,” Mason Cox said.
“He never gives me the benefit of the doubt
or show extra special care for me. It’s actually
probably the opposite [laughs]. He
knows how I work, so he’ll be a little more
higher-standard expectations for me. I think
it’s really cool because in games, I’ll talk
to him between innings and I’ll say something
I noticed on their defense, and we’re
always on the same page, usually. … I think
it’s a special blessing I have to say that my
dad is my college coach.”
After Mason Cox finished his record-
setting sophomore season, his dad was
quick to remind him that he’s expecting
more next season.
“When I found out I broke [the records],
I could tell my dad was really proud,”
Mason Cox said. “And right away he was,
like, ‘You’re a sophomore, so I expect next
year to be better.’ [laughs]”
Mason Cox also decided to play football
for MLC in the fall last year as a receiver.
He pulled in 19 catches for 297 yards and
a touchdown and finished the season as an
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Second
Team player.
His play on the football field didn’t take
away any attention from his baseball career,
though. It only helped fuel his desire
to get back on the diamond.
“Coming back around this year, I chose
to play football,” Mason Cox said. “I had a
lot of close friends on the team. Then eventually
I was kind of thinking, ‘I hope this
doesn’t affect my baseball playing here.’ I
didn;t play fall ball for baseball, which kind
of felt weird, but it got me more excited for
baseball at the end of football … because I
hadn’t played baseball then since summer.
That kind of got me more hungry for the
season at the end of football. As soon as
football ended, I had the mindset of baseball
now. I was still doing certain lifts and I
was still throwing on my own for baseball,
so I wasn’t shutting it out, but I definitely
had this shift in mindset, like, ‘Okay, now
it’s time to put baseball in the front of my
mind.'”
After a winless 2021 season of baseball,
the Knights didn’t quite have the
turnaround season they were hoping for in
2022 as they finished with a 3-28 record.
But the team did see improvements and
growth.
“Coming into this season, my goal was
obviously to get a win and we got that
goal,” Cox said. “Now as another team
goal, I want five wins next year or I want
to get some more wins. On top of that, I
want to just compete again. We didn’t get as
10-runned as much as we did last year. We
actually played more full games, we’d make
teams use more than one pitcher, it was a lot
of cool things like that. I guess going into
next year, now that people know we actually
won a game, we’re here — I think this year
we finished seventh in the UMAC, instead of
eighth — so next year let’s finish above that,
just kind of improve each year.
“I can’t control some of the stuff we
do in the offseason, but we have a lot of
reliability with each other, I’ll text my
teammates, we still text in our group chat,
see how everyone’s doing, I think that’s
another thing, we’ve just gotta hold each
other accountable.”
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