Later this week, Carlisle Koestler will head to south Louisiana for the summer to play in a wooden bat league and improves his skills. Besides packing a suitcase, he might need to rent a U-Haul to lug all of the accolades and honors that have come his way in recent days.

Koestler, a pitcher at Hinds Community College and a former Warren Central star, was selected to the National Junior College Athletics Association’s All-Region 23 team on Monday. He was also named first-team all-state by the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges.

The postseason honors came two weeks after he earned the MACJC’s Pitcher of the Week award.

“It means a lot,” Koestler said of receiving the honors. “Especially after not getting to play last year, all of the hard work is starting to pay off. (Hinds pitching coach Wes) Thigpen did a great job. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have done nearly as good as I did.”

Four other Hinds players also earned All-State honors. Infielder Cord Cockrell, an Ole Miss signee, was named to the first team along with Koestler. Outfielder Jackson Mitchell, pitcher-outfielder Quinton Logan and pitcher Adam Jackson were all second-team picks.

Koestler went 10-3 with three saves this season. He had a 2.95 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched. His success came after he underwent an unexpected role change early in the season.

The redshirt freshman was expecting to be one of the starters in Hinds’ rotation. After the Eagles lost some close games early in the year, however, he was moved to the bullpen and became the closer.

Koestler appeared in 25 games and went two innings or more in 14 of them. He only allowed nine runs in his last nine innings, and earned the Pitcher of the Week award after throwing 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball in a 12-11 win over Northwest Mississippi in the first round of the MACJC playoffs.

“I didn’t expect to get this many wins, but I just did whatever they needed me to do to help us win,” Koestler said. “Closing is a lot different than starting, because the last three outs are the hardest to get. I think I did all right. You have to grow and get better every week, and every time out.”

Beginning Thursday, Koestler will begin the transition back to a starter. The Southeastern Louisiana signee will spend this summer playing with the Acadiana Cane Cutters of the Texas Collegiate League, a wood bat league based in Texas and Louisiana.

He said Southeastern Louisiana plans to use him as a starter, and not a reliever, so he’ll work on increasing his stamina and getting back into the mindset of a pitcher who has to get more than a few batters out.

“I think it’s going to help me a lot,” Koestler said. “We’re going to play a lot of guys from places like TCU, Ole Miss, some SEC schools. It’s going to get me ready for next year.”