Individual honors and conference championships dominate the column today.
Higher Education Yahoo (HEY) Awards
Let’s start with the naming of Wilkes University’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. That’s Pottsville grad and Colonels senior second baseman Bobby Schappell.
Schappell carries a 3.88 grade-point-average as an accounting major and distinguished himself on the field as a four-year starter. This season he batted .255 with a .403 on-base percentage and was second on the team in runs scored with 32. He had seven doubles and was 6-for-6 in stolen bases. He finished his collegiate career with two hits, an RBI and a run scored in an 8-7 win over Scranton.
• Three local senior football players have been named to the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame 2015 Hampshire Honor Society, which recognizes college football players from all divisions who have maintained a minimum 3.20 GPA throughout their collegiate careers.
The three area players are King’s quarterback Tyler Hartranft of Blue Mountain, and Lebanon Valley linebacker Tyler Laudeman of North Schuylkill and defensive end Adam Soltys of Pine Grove. All three were also members of the Middle Atlantic Conference Academic Honor Roll and/or All-Academic team.
• Two local products have been named to the MAC’s Commonwealth Conference first-team all-conference baseball squad. They are Lebanon Valley College senior center fielder Phill Dohner of Schuylkill Haven and Arcadia junior third baseman Nick Todero of Pine Grove.
Dohner was the Dutchmen’s best hitter this year with a .381 batting average and .416 slugging percentage. He led the team with 43 hits, 29
runs scored, seven stolen bases and a .468 OBP. Defensively, he had a stellar .990 fielding percentage despite playing center field for the first time in his career.
Dohner holds the career mark for games played at LVC with 144, ranks second all-time in program history in hits (164) and runs scored (111), and is in the top three in total bases (219), RBIs (87) and stolen bases (30). In his final collegiate game, Dohner got the chance to pitch and notched his first career save when he recorded the final out in a 3-1 win over Hood.
After transferring from Northampton Community College, Todero started all 31 games for Arcadia and led his team with a .376 batting average and 44 hits. He was second on the team with 11 doubles and 26 runs scored, while his 18 RBIs ranked fourth. Todero was in the conference top-10 in batting average, hits and doubles.
• West Chester sophomore outfielder Sarah Walasavage of Minersville earned a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East second-team all-conference spot after batting .315 on the season and leading the team with 40 runs and five triples. She also had four home runs, eight doubles, was 15-for-18 in stolen bases and defensively had only one error. In West Chester’s opening 6-5 win in the PSAC Tournament, Walasavage went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and she was 1-for-3 with a double in a tourney-ending 6-0 loss to California (Pa.).
• Keystone College sophomore outfielder Emily Long of Lourdes was named to the All-Colonial States Athletic Conference softball second team. She started all 32 games and led her team with a .413 average, a .486 OBP, a .565 slugging percentage, 38 hits, 11 doubles, 23 RBIs, 11 walks and six stolen bases.
• In tennis, two former Hamburg standouts now at Lebanon Valley earned all-conference honors, and one was cited for outstanding community service. Senior Brittany Dierwechter was named first team All-Commonwealth Conference, and junior Cody Manmiller was named to the second team.
Dierwechter was 15-7 in singles and 10-12 in doubles, finishing the season with a seven-match singles win streak. She also received the LVC Service Award at the All-Sports Banquet for her community charitable and service contributions. Dierwechter performed more than 118 hours of community service during her collegiate career, for such causes as cystic fibrosis, Special Olympics, migrant education and others.
Manmiller was 7-5 in singles play and 7-4 in doubles.
• At Lebanon Valley College’s All-Sports Banquet, team MVPs included Tamaqua’s Kelsey Patrick in women’s cross country, Blue Mountain’s Frank Gaffney in football, Schuylkill Haven’s Dohner in baseball and Millersburg’s Ian Lloyd in men’s swimming.
Track Talk
Both the MAC and PSAC held their conference track and field championships this past weekend.
In the PSAC, Shippensburg won both the men’s and women’s titles, for the seventh and sixth consecutive times respectively, with some local help.
On the men’s side, senior Andrew Korrubin of Pottsville finished fourth in the javelin with a throw of 195-1 and is among the top 10 seeds on the national performance list. Sophomore Eric Hertzog of Tamaqua finished eighth in the 110-meter hurdles.
For the women, Jim Thorpe’s Ashley Nicola, a senior, was part of the second place 400 relay team, and Hamburg’s Kali Hepner, a freshman, finished ninth in the pole vault.
• Kutztown decathlon competitor junior Tyler Matunis of North Schuylkill recorded season-best marks in all five second-day events to finish fifth overall. Freshman teammate Colton Cryts of Blue Mountain finished 13th in the long jump.
• Bloomsburg’s Jake Plachko of Pottsville was 14th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and ran a leg on the ninth-place 3,200 relay team. Another Pottsville grad, Meghan Hallick, was 17th in both the shot put and hammer throw.
• West Chester sophomore Greg Raudenbush of Blue Mountain took 11th in both the discus and shot put.
• In the MACs, Lebanon Valley College’s and Tamaqua grad Alyssa Keich was fourth in the 1,500 meters. Widener’s Brianna Englert of Pottsville was sixth in the 800 meters, while teaming with sister Taylor Englert both ran legs on Widener’s fourth-place 3,200 relay team.
• Misericordia siblings and Mt. Carmel grads, junior Mikael Hause and freshman Lauren Hause, both ran well. Mikael was sixth in the 1,500 meters, eighth in the 800 and ran a leg on the third place 3,200 relay team. Lauren was third in the women’s 1,500 and was part of the second place 3,200 relay team.
Diamond Doings
East Stroudsburg’s men’s baseball team made it to finals of the PSAC Tournament before falling to Millersville 13-4. In the tourney, freshman catcher Steve Zimmerman of Pine Grove went 5-for 16 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Zimmerman had 31 starts on the year, batting .286 with a .400 OBP and only one error.
• Elizabethtown’s softball team was the Landmark Conference runner-up, losing in the finals to Moravian. Both teams had local players.
E’Town senior third baseman Jordan Nowacki of Tamaqua started all 40 games, batting .295 with a .398 OBP, a team-leading 18 walks and 18 RBIs. Sophomore teammate catcher/pitcher Ashley Hullihan of Mahanoy Area batted .267 in 13 games and was 1-5 on the mound.
Moravian sophomore infielder Madison Newhouser of North Schuylkill batted .316 in 15 appearances (13 starts).
(MacLaughlin’s college column appears bi-weekly. To make contributions, email Sports Editor Leroy Boyer at Lboyer@republicanherald.com)