Sunday Locals: GSL slowpitch softball gets spotlight

The spotlight will literally shine on Greater Spokane League slowpitch softball Tuesday when district rivals University and Central Valley play under the lights at U-Hi at 7 p.m.

Ken VanSickle, University activities coordinator and softball coordinator for the GSL, said portable lights will be installed at the Titans’ field to hold the first night game in the history of the fall slowpitch program.

“It should be a great night for the girls and a fun night for the fans,” VanSickle said of what they are calling the inaugural “Fall Ball Brawl.”

U-Hi (12-0) and CV (9-3) are among the top three teams in the league standings.

College scene

Nicole Graybeal, Lewis-Clark State’s senior middle blocker from North Central, was named the Frontier Conference Volleyball Player of the Week after collecting 16 kills and hitting .382 in the 14th-ranked Warriors’ five-set win over Westminster College.

Graybeal, a first-team NAIA All-American last season, also had four blocks, three digs, three assists and two service aces as 11-3 L-C State won a fifth straight match.

• Christine Deitz, a sophomore starting right-side hitter for Walla Walla Community College from Post Falls, has 38 kills, 24 blocks and 59 digs for the 18-5 Warriors. She has also received a NWAACC Scholar-Athlete Award.

• Sophie Bush, a Lewis-Clark State freshman from Newport who ran a personal-best 18 minutes, 38 seconds for 8K, was named Frontier Conference Female Cross Country Athlete of the Week.

Bush finished 38th out of 223 runners at the Charles Bowles Invitational to help the 19th-ranked Warriors finish fifth, one spot ahead of defending NAIA champion Southern Oregon.

• Alvaro Nazal, a freshman men’s tennis player at Gonzaga, earned his first West Coast Conference Singles Player of the Month award.

The Santiago, Chile, native received the September award after he won five straight matches to clinch the Eastern Washington University Fall Classic title in Flight A.

• Senior football quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell and junior volleyball outside hitter Cora Kellerman have been named the October Scholar-Athletes of the Month for September by the Eastern Washington athletic department.

Mitchell, an education major, has maintained a 3.27 grade-point average in his two years at Eastern. Kellerman, a two-time Big Sky All-Academic honoree, has a 3.82 GPA in electrical engineering. Both were selected by their teammates as captains of their respective squads for the 2011 season.

Track and field

George Mathews of Hayden Lake won two events in the men’s 65-69-year-old age division at the Nevada Senior Olympics last weekend in Las Vegas. He won the 5K hammer with a throw of 145 feet, 8 inches and the 20-pound weight throw with a 57-8 1/4.