(PITTSBURGH) Otto Kemp is officially a big leaguer.
The former PLNU Baseball star has been called up by the Philadelphia Phillies and will make his Major League Baseball debut today at the Pittsburgh Pirates, batting seventh and playing third base.
He is the first Point Loma position player to be called up to the major leagues, and third overall all-time, joining pitchers Marty Decker and Mike Ekstrom.
Kemp has been tearing it up in the Phillies minor league system at AAA Lehigh Valley, batting .314 this season with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs, to go along with a .416 on-base % and a 1.010 OPS.
While at PLNU, Kemp led the Sea Lions to a national runner-up finish at the 2022 NCAA Division II World Series after winning the program's first ever West Region and PacWest Conference championships.
In 2022, he reached base safely in all 61 games, extending his on-base streak to an incredible 73 games dating back to the season prior.
Kemp received First Team All-West Region recognition in 2022 after earning NCBWA Honorable Mention All-American honors in 2021.
For his PLNU career, Kemp batted .356 with 33 home runs and 101 RBIs in just 121 games, while posting a .480 on-base % and a .644 slugging %.
Despite playing just one full season at PLNU, because of a redshirt season in 2019 and two shortened seasons in 2020 and 2021, Kemp ranks seventh among Sea Lions all-time in career homers and 10th in batting average.
