Courtesy of @lcpiosbb on Instagram
With the start of the new semester comes new classes and looming seasonal allergies. For the track and field, baseball and softball teams, spring also means the start of a new season ripe with opportunity (and hopefully not too many seasonal allergies).
Joaquin Sandoval ’26, a catcher on the baseball team, expressed his optimism about the upcoming season.
“This is going to be a great year for us,” Sandoval said via email. “Everyone has worked really hard through the off-season to better themselves so they can best contribute toward our goals. The freshman class has fit right into our program’s culture, and I expect our team is going to compete for a top spot in the conference this year.”
This semester, the team will be playing its first full season in the renovated Huston Sports Complex, located just off of Terwilliger Boulevard on Boones Ferry Road. Huston re-opened in February 2024 and became Lewis & Clark’s first indoor facility dedicated to baseball and softball.
“Our new turf field means we can practice no matter the weather, and we’re all really grateful for that,” Sandoval said.
Despite the team’s shiny new digs, away games are an equally enticing part of the season.
“I’m looking forward to traveling to California to play against teams in the SCIAC (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference),” Sandoval said. “Those teams bring good competition and it’s always fun to travel with the team and play in my home state.”
Sandoval is especially grateful for his fellow teammates, some of whom are playing their last season this spring.
“I’m also hoping to savor the moments with our seniors, they’ve been great friends and teammates since I stepped foot on campus and I look forward to one last season of baseball with them,” Sandoval said.
Matt Kosderka, head coach of the baseball team, is excited for the upcoming season.
“Our guys have put in a ton of work over the off-season and it has been great to see the improvements they have made over the past few months. I know it will pay off when our season officially starts on February 15th,” Kosderka said via email.
Kosderka outlined his goals for the team this semester.
“First off, we want to give everything we can each day to reach our definition of Success. Secondly, we want to have a winning season. And finally, we want to finish amongst the top four teams in the NWC, so that we can earn a spot in the conference tournament. I know having been in the post-season two years ago, and missing it last year, our guys are hungry to get back,” Kosderka said.
Head softball coach Shawna Cyrus shares the baseball team’s excitement over the renovation of the Hutson facility and the start of their season.
“Softball practices have been going great, especially with the unusually sunny weather to the start of the semester, and being able to use Huston has been really great,” Cyrus said via email.
Cyrus also reflected on a successful 2024 season.
“Last year our softball team broke quite a few 40-year-old records,” Cyrus said. “We also made it all the way to the Northwest Conference Championship game, which was amazing!”
With last year’s encouraging record, Cyrus believes the team can achieve even more this time around.
“What we have yet to accomplish is to WIN the Northwest Conference, which Lewis & Clark hasn’t done since 1979. This year we have the talent, the leadership and the drive and we are working hard towards that goal,” Cyrus said.
Not all of our spring teams are starting from scratch. The runners on the men’s and women’s track and field teams include all of the cross country players from the fall, with many more joining up for the spring.
Head Coach Chris Reed shared that the season has gotten off to a great start, with Riley Buese ’25 setting a program record in December with the fourteenth-fastest 5000-meter in NCAA DIII history. The team came back for the new semester in January and has continued to impress.
“The majority of our team made their season debut this past weekend at University of Portland, and we had some nice results,” Reed said via email.
More program records were set at the UP indoor meet, with Jordan Lahusky ’26 breaking the previous 600-meter record and Noah Nelson ’26 the 1000-meter record. The meet was Nelson’s first of the season, and required lots of preparation.
“I spent a lot of time talking with Chris and reintegrating myself with the team and I just went in with a positive mentality,” Nelson said. “(Chris) and I have never been on the team at the same time. I think he brings in a different kind of mentality and vibe with him.”
Looking forward, the team will host the two home meets they do every spring: the L&C Electric Forest Open in March and the L&C Larry Byerly Invitational in April. This year, they will also host the Northwest Conference Championships, which was last held at LC in 2016.
“It’s a huge honor to compete at our home venue, especially at a meet that we put so much emphasis on already,” Reed said. “We’d love to see campus-wide support those weekends, and our hard-working student-athletes certainly will do all they can to put on a show!”
LC’s spring sports teams have been putting in the work to prepare for their upcoming seasons, striving to beat previous school records and compete in conference play. If you want to support our school’s sports teams, make sure to keep a lookout for home games on the LC Pioneers’ website and Instagram.
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