PITTSBURGH — Postseason honors continue to find Knoch graduate and La Roche College baseball coach Chase Rowe.

Rowe guided the Redhawks to a school-record 32 wins — including a 14-2 record in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference — last spring. He has since been named Regional Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association, Mideast Region Coach of the Year by D3Baseball and AMCC Coach of the Year.

He received the latter award for the fourth time in five years.

Now he will receive the Chuck Tanner Collegiate Baseball Head Coach of the Year award at the ninth annual Chuck Tanner Awards Banquet Nov. 14 at the Rivers Club in Pittsburgh.

“I’m excited about this,” said Rowe, also a Slippery Rock University graduate. “It’s a testament to our players and the good coaching assistants we have in this program.

“We’re continuing to build and this is a part of that.”

The Tanner Awards are designed to recognize those who represent dedication to sport, excellence and integrity. A national selection committee determines the recipients, using the past season and career success as its criteria.

Rowe has a .591 winning percentage at La Roche over the past eight seasons. He was named head coach of the Redhawks in 2006 when he was 23. Rowe was a third baseman for longtime SRU baseball coach Jeff Messer.

“Chase has worked very hard to put himself in the position that he is in today,” La Roche athletic director Jim Tinkey said in a released statement. “He’s a great student of the game, an incredible recruiter and a tremendous leader.

“But most importantly, and what I’m most proud of is that he’s as good a role model as you’ll find for the young men he coaches.”

Messer described Rowe as “one of the most competitive players I’ve ever coached.”

“That competitiveness just translates into coaching. Chase has always been a baseball guy and he communicates very well to his players. This award is well-deserved,” Messer added.

The Redhawks fell one win short of reaching the Division III World Series last year.

“When I took this job nine years ago, the goal was to win a national championship,” Rowe said. “At a smaller school like La Roche, it takes time to build toward that.

“It’s taken a while, but we won a few games against top teams in our region last year. We’re getting past that little fish in a big pond mentality. Our guys now believe we can compete nationally.”

Messer believes that will happen.

“Chase sees a lot of players each summer and he’s been able to bring a caliber of player that La Roche has never seen before,” he said. “He’s taken that program from nowhere to the penthouse.

“He’s done as much or more for that baseball program as any other coach in this region has done for a program, Division I, II or III.”

Other Tanner awards being presented at the Nov. 14 fete are the Major League Manager of the Year to Texas Rangers skipper Jeff Banister, Lifetime Achievment to former Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy, Tanner Memorial Award to Pirate pitching coach Ray Searage and Distinguished Woman in Baseball Award to Judy Carpenter-Barada, Director of Major League Administration for the St. Louis Cardinals.