Photo courtesy of Gustavus Sports Information Gustavus Adolphus College’s Chris Knowles celebrates a home run on his way to third during a MIAC baseball game against Augsburg on March 29, 2024 at Gustie Baseball Field in St. Peter.

ST. PETER — Time in the weight room over the offseason has been kind to Gustavus Adolphus College’s Chris Knowles.

The 2020 New Ulm Cathedral grad put on 10 pounds from last year, and the Gusties’ baseball team has been happy to reap the benefits in run support. Knowles, now a 220-pound senior infielder at Gustavus, has been experiencing career highs this season in almost every positive statistical area.

In 42 games his junior year, Knowles turned in a .309 batting average to go with 46 hits, 10 doubles, seven homers, 37 RBIs and a .517 slugging percentage.

Now in his senior year — and in just 30 games so far — Knowles is hitting .431 with 47 hits, 10 doubles, seven homers, 40 RBIs and a .734 slugging percentage.

“The power numbers probably come from our offseason lifting program,” Knowles said. “One of our coaches does a really good job with that, Cole Pengilly. He’s helped a lot, he does weight programs with us. I wouldn’t say that I’ve changed much of my swing from last year, but I think it’s kind of a mental approach, which has helped me a lot.

“Just being a lot more relaxed at the plate and trying to be simple and not be too big, which I guess it has transferred into more power, but I think it’s just trying to shut off other thoughts while I’m in the box.”

Cathedral baseball head coach Alan Woitas coached Knowles throughout Knowles’ high school career. After Knowles went to college, the coaching staff changed.

In some ways, however, it stayed the same.

Knowles graduated from one Woitas to another after 2020 as the Gustavus associate head baseball coach is Andrew Woitas, twin brother of Alan Woitas.

“They’re twins in their looks and their personality as well,” Knowles said. “They’re very similar people, but it’s been super fun to be able to have been coached by them.”

Knowles also etched his name in the baseball record books at Gustavus this year with a school record 27-game hit streak that began on April 26, 2023, at Carleton and ended on April 3, 2024, against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

“During most of the streak, I had no idea it was going on,” Knowles said. “Then when I broke the record, I had a couple people text me about it, which I’ll probably blame them for the reason why it ended then [laughs]. But after it was over, it was actually [Andrew] Woitas that said, ‘Hey, that’s super cool. You might not think about it now, but you’ll look back on that and really appreciate it.’

“It’s super cool to do something like that, but at the same time, you’ve just got to try to not let it distract you from the important goal of the team. I’m super blessed to have been able to achieve that, that was awesome.”

Knowles’ road to crushing baseballs in college had some bumps along the way.

After hitting .272 and a pair of homers in 30 games during his freshman season, Knowles suffered a torn labrum that saw his sophomore year end after two at-bats.

While some athletes struggle when returning from an injury, Knowles’ return has quite clearly been a success.

Even though he lost an entire season of playing the game he loves, Knowles has thoroughly enjoyed his four years with the program.

“It’s an awesome journey,” Knowles said. “It’s been really fun just first off getting to know a bunch of guys and coaches and just being surrounded by a bunch of people who love the same game that you do and want to play it at a high level. That’s also something that’s been really fun is being able to play high-intensity games.”

A two-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Athlete of the Week and an All-Conference player in 2023, Knowles can complete his senior season with another All-Conference honor in May. Until then, there are more games to play and Knowles said the Gusties are looking to finish the season strong in hopes of a MIAC playoff berth.

The Gusties are currently 16-14 overall and tied for sixth in the conference with a 7-7 mark. The top four conference teams advance to the MIAC Championships.

Gustavus has qualified for the MIAC tourney every season since 2018, other than in 2020 when the season was canceled due to COVID.

Gustavus has six MIAC games left on the schedule, with a home doubleheader against Macalester next up on Saturday.

Regardless of how the rest of the season pans out for the Gusties, Knowles will be back for one more season in 2025 by utilizing the Gustavus Tuition-Free Ninth Semester option. The option was announced in the fall of 2020 and gives full-time students enrolled at Gustavus throughout the 2020-21 academic year another semester, barring they meet certain eligibility requirements.