Game 1 box score - Saginaw Valley State 7, Hillsdale 5
Game 2 box score - Hillsdale 6, Saginaw Valley State 3
May 1, 2013 - A big, sun-drenched crowd went home happy Wednesday afternoon, as the Hillsdale College baseball team closed out its home schedule for 2013 on a winning note, 6-3 over Saginaw Valley State University.
The Cardinals edged the Chargers 7-5 in the first game of their GLIAC twinbill. Hillsdale heads into its final weekend of the season with a 17-25 overall record and 10-18 in the conference. The Chargers take on Walsh University in a three-game series in Canton, Ohio Saturday and Sunday.
In the second game, Hillsdale got early run support for winning pitcher Shane Armstrong, plating three in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman Lincoln Reed sent a long triple to right-center field that spring Hillsdale to an early 3-0 lead.
Armstorng pitched 6 2/3 innings with four strikeouts on just one walk in picking up his team-leading fourth win of the season. The Cardinals scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning, but sophomore pitcher Dan Pochmara put an immediate end to the comeback threat. He earned a one-pitch save, forcing a fielder's choice groundout after relieving Armstrong. Pochmara now has five saves on the season and extended his career school record total to nine.
Reed went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and a run scored in the win for the Chargers. Sophomore shortstop Vinny Delicata also had two hits in game two. Freshmen Luke Ortel and Zak Northrup, along with senior Mike Vanchieri, each had a hit and a run scored.
In game one, senior pitcher Kris Morris pitched 6 2/3 innings, and set the new Hillsdale College single-season record for innings pitched. His total now stands at 87.0, breaking the record previously held by Andy Lovell and set in 2006. Morris figures to make one more start in this weekend's series against Walsh, where is will extend this newly earned record.
Senior Scott Lantis (pictured), playing his last baseball games in the city in which he grew up, was 1-for-2 with 2 RBI in the first game. Lantis was a state champion while playing for Hillsdale High School in 2007, and has gone on to a career of distinction with the Chargers, both on and off the field.
Freshman Connor Bartlett went 3-for-3 with two runs scored in the opener for Hillsdale.