Game 1 box score: Alderson-Broaddus 15, Hillsdale 5
Game 2 box score: Alderson-Broaddus 6, Hillsdale 5
A team as young as this year's Hillsdale College baseball team is bound to endure some growing pains. Some of those were evident Sunday afternoon.
The Chargers dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Alderson-Broaddus, by scores of 15-5 and 6-5 on a gorgeous day at Adrian College. The Chargers are now 1-3 on the season.
In game 1, Hillsdale committed eight errors in the field, which greatly conrtibuted to a 10-run fifth inning by the Battlers that decided the outcome of the game.
The mistakes cost Charger freshman starting pitcher Jeff Burch, who was solid in his first collegiate start until the wheels fell off the entire team in that fifth inning. Burch held A-B to just one run through four innings, during which time the Chargers built a 4-1 lead. But the fifth inning proved fatal Hillsdale, and the team never recovered.
Sophomores Colin Boerst and Steven Ring each had 2 RBI to lead the offense in the opener. Freshman Dante Toppi had two hits in his first collegiate start, and redshirt-freshman Jacob DePillo scored twice.
In game 2, Hillsdale clawed out to a 4-3 lead in the third inning after a Boerst double scored Ryan O'Hearn, capping a three-run frame.
But the Battlers quickly gained the lead after oushing three across in the top of the fourth. Hillsdale rallied in the seventh, led by another O'Hearn run, coming courtesy of an infield single by Alex Walts. But the rally ended there.
Freshman Andrew Verbrugge made his first collegiate start on the mound and struck out two in four full innings pitched. Toppi was solid in three relief innings, not allowing an earned run.
ON THE CLOCK: Hillsdale plays a three-game series at Bellarmine next weekend.