Freshly Committed to Marshall University, Karsten Hansen Makes a Promising Pit Stop in Springfield.

(Photo by Alyssa Garcia)

By Henry Light

SPRINGFIELD — Karsten Hansen’s baseball journey will soon take him 2,500 miles away from Lower Columbia College to Marshall University, where the reigning Northwest Athletic Conference West Region Player of the Year committed on June 16. Before he heads east, Hansen will travel under three hours down I-5 from Longview, Washington, for his first summer in Springfield with the Drifters.

“Now that I'm committed, I'm just here to help the Drifters win some games and work on some things personally this summer that will help me thrive at my next spot,” Hansen said.

The junior outfielder from Olympia, Washington, will be a key cog in the Drifters machine from his arrival in mid-June til the end of the season in August, bringing a disciplined, contact-heavy approach that fits perfectly in the Springfield lineup, along with a strong arm in the outfield. 

As the wire-to-wire center fielder at Lower Columbia last season, Hansen hit .378 with a .542 OPB thanks to his 42 walks. Those abilities have provided opportunities to play baseball outside the Pacific Northwest, fulfilling a goal of Hansen’s when he first committed an hour south of his hometown to Lower Columbia out of Capital High School.

“It's pretty cool playing baseball and being able to travel for it because you can just see so many more states and meet so many people,” Hansen said.

Hansen followed those opportunities to Spearfish, South Dakota, last Summer, where he joined the Spearfish Sasquatch with motivation to improve on a challenging freshman season. Hansen began his college career with 12 hits in the Red Devils’ first seven games before a two-week break due to sickness in mid-March dropped him into a platoon role the rest of the way.

“It was  actually the mental side of the game,
like, I wasn't trying to be as physical, I was trying to just do what I could,” Hansen said of his goals that summer. “I know I'm not a home run guy. I'm not gonna have eight home runs in the season. I’m like gap-to-gap, a lot of singles and just getting on base — like, steal first base as our coaches would say at Lower Columbia.”

Hansen parlayed that work into a hot start as the starting center fielder back in Longview, going 5-for-7 with three RBIs in the Red Devils’ opening day double-header against Clackamas. 

Soon after that performance, Drifters head coach Jeff Lyle got a call from close friend and Lower Columbia head coach Kurt Lupinski. “I have a center fielder for you,” Lupinski said.

“We have a good relationship where he’s gonna send me a couple players every year, and I’m not asking who they are or anything; I just trust him,” Lyle said. 

With Lyle watching, Hansen carried that success throughout the season, including a seven-game hitting streak in April and a career-best nine-game hitting streak in May, which included a walk-off single against rival Tacoma.

“It was probably around Tacoma when I kind of realized (Player of the Year) was in my hands,” Hansen said.

“He had a phenomenal year,” Lyle said. “As long as I've been in the game, you watch kids who get a hot start like that, and you're kind of waiting for the fall.
I’ve just been following him all year, and it was one hot streak the whole year.”

As Hansen’s Division I prospects came into view late in the season, the Red Devils wrapped up an NWAC championship. 

Hansen made enough of an impression on Marshall’s representatives at the tournament that his eventual transfer destination made contact that week.

“At Lower Columbia, guys just find their way to the next level,” Hansen said. “You can't be worried about that because it's gonna happen naturally, as long as you just trust the process, so I wasn't too worried about it.”

After following Hansen’s sophomore season and observing his first week in Springfield, Lyle expects more moves in Hansen’s baseball career after his upcoming move to West Virginia.

“Baseball's the same everywhere, so he gets on campus, and it's, ‘yes, I'm 2000 miles away from a home, but everything is the same. I got my boys here with me,’ and that culture makes you feel at home right away,” Lyle said. “He's gonna have a really long career, so being (in Springfield), being in South Dakota last year, being in Longview then going out to Marshall, it's the character builder, and it's the things that these guys need to excel at the next level.”

In the lead-up to the biggest move of his blossoming career, Hansen looks at home near the top of the Drifters’ upgraded lineup, and anywhere in the outfield at Hamlin Sports Complex