Affolder blasts first HR

Collin Affolder hit the occasional home run in high school.
Now he’s got his first career long ball in college out of the way.
Affolder, a 2014 South Adams High School graduate, hit the first home run of his college career for the Bethel College baseball team Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader against Spring Arbor.
The sophomore deposited a 1-1 pitch from Spencer Goebel over the fence in left field for a solo home run. It was the first of two runs for the Pilots, who lost 5-2.
Affolder then went 2-for-5 with two walks and a sacrifice fly in game two, a 4-3 win in 17 innings.
The day before, he had four hits and scored twice in a doubleheader split with Spring Arbor.
Monday against Indiana University-South Bend, Affolder walked and scored a run as the Pilots (5-15, 2-2 Crossroads) defeated the Titans 12-3.
He tallied a hit in the second game of the doubleheader, a 9-1 loss.
After recording eight hits in his first 14 games, Affolder has seven hits in his last six contests. He is batting .254 this season with nine walks, seven runs and four RBIs.

Eme Miller
Jay County – 2012
Led the pair of local athletes who competed Saturday at Defiance College’s Dick Small Invitational.
Miller, who runs for the Defiance women’s track team, was the runner-up in her only race of the day. She posted a time of 18 minutes, 23.5 seconds, in the 5,000-meter run to finish second behind Alma’s Kaitlyn Arnold.

Tim Lehman
South Adams – 2012
Also competed at the Dick Small Invitational, helping the Goshen College men’s track team to a seventh-place finish in the 13-team field.
Lehman was sixth for the Maple Leafs in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing in 59.86 seconds. He also teamed with Christian Stevens, Abe Medellin and Luke Graber for fourth in the 4x400 relay.

Abigail Johnson
Jay County – 2014
Competed in the steeplechase for the first time in her collegiate career and finished third for the Indiana Wesleyan women’s track team March 24 in the Polar Bear Invitational it hosted.
The sophomore finished the 3,000-meter race in 13 minutes, 3.73 seconds, 1.51 seconds behind runner up Sarah Hudi of Olivet Nazarene.
Johnson’s teammate Bryn Beyer won in 12:49.43.

Abbi Dunlavy
Jay County – 2014
Finished first in her heat and 15th overall in the developmental 1,500-meter run for the IPFW women’s track team in the Winthrop University Invitational March 24.
The sophomore won her heat with a time of 5 minutes, 23.1 seconds, ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Sydney Davis by more than three seconds.
Delaney McDowell of Liberty won the race in 4:53.55.
Kyle Selvey
Jay County – 2014
Scored a pair of runs for the Huntington University baseball team Saturday in a 4-1 win against Mount Vernon Nazarene.
The sophomore was a pinch runner for catcher Andy Roser, tallying the only multi-run effort for the Foresters (8-17, 3-1 Crossroads League).
He also scored a run in a 2-1 win Friday, also against Mount Vernon Nazarene.
He tallied another run Monday in a 7-2 victory over Robert Morris, and made his season debut in the field at second base Tuesday against NAIA No. 23 Indiana Tech.

Chandler Ingle
South Adams – 2015
Pitched for the Goshen College baseball team in a 10-2 loss Tuesday to IPFW.
The freshman entered as a reliever in the fifth inning and had a 1-2-3 frame. He struggled in the sixth, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He also struck out one and didn’t give up a walk in 1 1/3 inning.