There's lots of Lewis County athletes playing sports at the college level, especially in the spring. Here's a roundup of how some of them are doing at four-year schools.
Baseball
Robert Pehl, a sophomore from Chehalis, went 2 for 4 with an RBI for the University of Washington in a 3-2 win over Utah on Sunday. Pehl finished the three-game series against the Utes with four hits and three RBIs, while teammate Erik Forgione — also a sophomore from Chehalis — was 1 for 3 with an RBI on Sunday. Pehl has started all 49 games for the 19-30 Huskies and is hitting .266, and his 28 RBIs are second-highest total on the team.
Colton Schoelkopf, a junior from Chehalis, had three hits for Colorado Mesa Univerity during an 11-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament win over New Mexico Highlands on Saturday. The Mavericks lost in the RMAC championship game to Colorado State-Pueblo, but secured a No. 2 seed to the 48-team NCAA Division II Tournament, which begins on Thursday. Schoelkopf is hitting .330 for the 44-9 Mavericks.
Ryan Knutz, a senior catcher from Rochester, went 1 for 4 for Bellevue University in a 3-1 loss to Lubbock Christian in the opening round of the NAIA Baseball National Championships in Claremore, Okla. on Friday. Knutz finished the season with a .288 batting average, playing in all 56 games for the 45-10-1 Bruins with four home runs and 37 RBIs.
Softball
Fairfield University's Lauren Liseth, a junior from Centralia, was 1 for 3 with a double against Siena College on Friday during a 3-0 win at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships. The win came against Siena pitcher Jessika-Jo Sandrini, a junior from Adna who gave up six hits and struck out four with one walk to finish the season with a 15-9 pitching record. Sandrini had gone 1 for 3 with an RBI in the Saints' opening-round win over Niagra on Thursday, and finished the season with a .361 batting average, 31 RBIs and 12 doubles — and was hit by a whopping 25 pitches. The rest of the Saints lineup was hit by 12 pitches, combined, over the course of the season. Her sister Jordan, a freshman, hit .208 and played in 35 games for the 21-26 Saints.
Fairfield, meanwhile, went on to finish second in the MAAC championships with a 4-1 loss to Marist in the title game. The Stags finished the season with a 29-21 record, and Liseth earned a spot on the Capital One Academic All-District First Team. She finished with a .405 batting average and 47 hits in 46 starts at catcher for the Stags, and won three MAAC player of the week awards this season. She is also a Dean's List student with a 3.93 GPA as a double-major in communications and history.
Dani Wall, a sophomore from Tenino, homered for Saint Martin's University in a 5-3 loss to Humboldt State in Arcata, Calif., on Sunday in the NCAA Division II West Region Tournament. The Saints made program history with a 41-16 record, and became the first SMU team to win an NCAA tournament game. Wall started all 57 games for the Saints, hitting .275, and was third on the team with 38 RBIs.
Sarah Barnes, a freshman from Onalaska, hit a double for Boise State University in an 8-5 loss to Nevada on Friday, a day after going 1 for 2 with an RBI in a 10-2 win over the Wolfpack. Boise State finished the season with a 25-26-1 record and went 9-9 in Mountain West Conference play. Barnes hit .230 with 18 RBIs and five home runs in her freshman season.
Track & Field
Caroline Austin, a senior from Chehalis, finished third and set the Washington State University steeplechase record for the second time in two weeks on Saturday at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships in Los Angeles. Austin finished third in the 3000-meter steeplechase, in a school and personal record of 10 minutes, 8.49 seconds. She broke her own school record of 10:09.55, set on April 27.
Austin Hamilton finished fourth in the javelin at the Mountain West Conference Championships on Friday in Las Vegas. The Boise State University sophomore, from Chehalis, recorded a throw of 207 feet.
Zach Stanfield ran a leg of the fourth-place Seattle University 4x100-meters relay team on Saturday at the Western Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Arlington. The redshirt senior from Adna joined Zachary Schlachter, Shaddye Melu and Austin Thummel-Gravitt to cover the race in 41.52 seconds, just a hundredth off of the school record. He also ran a leg of the 4x400 relay with the same three teammates, setting a new school record in 3:13.59 and also finishing fourth. Kaytie Bateman, a senior from Pe Ell, ran a leg of the women's 4x400 relay for Seattle, which finished eighth in 4:01.16.
Frank Krause, a sophomore from Onalaska, finished fourth in the 800 meters for Saint Martin's University on Saturday in Monmouth, Ore., at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships. Krause covered the 800 in 1 minute, 54.44 seconds, just 3 seconds behind winner Christ Olsen (1:51.08) of Western Oregon.
Mikel Elliott, a junior from White Pass High School, finished second in the steeplechase for Concordia University at the Cascade Collegiate Conference Track & Field Championships Friday in Gresham, Ore. Her 11 minute, 15.16-second time also earned Elliott All-CCC honors. She also took sixth in the 5000 meters in 18 minutes, 14.25 seconds on Saturday.
