Game 1 box score: Hillsdale 5, Northwood 4
Game 2 box score: Hillsdale 13, Northwood 7
"The only history that matters is the history we make today." – Henry Ford
The 2016 Hillsdale College baseball team has generated plenty of individual firsts and records. But the two team milestones it achieved Wednesday afternoon trumps all of those.
Thanks to a doubleheader sweep of Northwood University, the Chargers clinched a spot in the GLIAC Tournament for the first time in 13 years, and set a new school record for most wins in a season (28). Hillsdale won the games by scores of 5-4 and 13-7 to improve to 16-8 in the GLIAC and 28-14 overall.
Hillsdale earned its first postseason berth since 2003 thanks to holding a four-game division lead over Northwood with four division games left to play while holding the tiebreaker advantage over the Timberwolves.
Game one ended in a walk-off win for the Chargers, their third in their current seven-game winning streak. Freshman Colin Boerst looped a single to left-center, scoring Connor Bartlett with the game-winning run. Bartlett opened the inning with a single, and senior catcher Joe Gentile followed with a single of his own. Redshirt-freshman Colin Hites, in the game as a relief pitcher, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to get Gentile to second and Bartlett to third, setting up Boerst's first career walk-off hit.
Senior Tad Sobieszczanski got a huge day started with a two-run home run in the first inning of game one. Sobieszczanski would later crush two more two-run homers in game two, his second multi-homer game of the season. For the day, Sobieszczanski went 4-for-9 with 3 home runs and 6 runs batted in.
Senior Luke Ortel had another huge day, going 7-for-9 at the plate over the two games, running his season-to-date hit total to 89. In game one, his non-hit was a result of reaching base via error. In his first at bat, Northwood deployed four outfielders, but Ortel responded by singling up the middle.
In his second at bat of game one, the Timberwolves elected to put on a defensive shift, placing three infielders to the right of second base. Ortel's response? He doubled down the left field line.
His one true out of the day came in his final at bat, when he flew out to right on a ball that traveled against the wind and was caught at the warning track.
In game two, Hillsdale countered every Northwood outburst with one of its own. The Timberwolves scored twice in the first to take a 2-0 lead. The Chargers countered with back-to-back home runs by Sobieszczanski and senior Chris McDonald to take a 3-2 lead. That would be the theme of the game.
Northwood cut a 5-2 deficit to 5-4 in the fourth inning, but Hillsdale answered back with five fourth-inning runs to turn it into a 10-4 ballgame.
Sophomore Alex Walts hit his first home run of the season in the fifth inning to put the Chargers comfortably ahead.
As a team, Hillsdale has 50 home runs this season.
The top four hitters in the Hillsdale lineup combined for 11 hits in the nightcap. Freshman Cam Maxwell scored two runs and relief pitcher Josh Leymaster got his first win of the season in a relief effort.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale squares off with North Division-leading Grand Valley State for a four-game series in Allendale starting at 1:00 Saturday.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kadie Lowery