MONDAY RECAP
The Charger baseball team was swept in a Monday morning/afternoon doubleheader against Bellarmine University, in games played at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Knights withstood a late Charger rally in Monday's first game to win 6-5. Bellarmine topped Hillsdale (1-3 overall) 6-3 in the second game.
Hillsdale came back from a 5-2 deficit to knot the game at 5 in the top of the seventh inning of game 1. Tad Sobieszczanski singled to score Connor Bartlett, which was followed by a two-run single by Nolan Breymaier to tie the game up. But the Knights came back in the bottom of the seventh with a single to win the game.
Sobieszczanski went 3-for-4 with a run batted in and a run scored, while Breymaier was 2-for-3.
In the second game, the Knights scored in each of the first three innings to take a 4-1 lead, a lead it would never lose the rest of the way.
Sobieszczanski had a second straight three-hit game, while Michael O'Sullivan and freshman Alex Walts each had a hit and a run scored.
SUNDAY RECAP
Even in Louisville, Kentucky, snowbanks bracketed the field at St. Xavier High School as the Hillsdale College baseball team opened its 2015 season Sunday afternoon.
Despite the cold and unwelcome southern invasion of the white stuff, the Chargers opened their season with a 5-4 win over the Bellarmine University Knights. Hillsdale dropped the second half of Sunday's doubleheader 4-1. The two teams will wrap up their four-game series with a Monday twinbill, also in Lousiville.
Junior pitcher Lucas Hamelink (pictured) got the season off on a good note, going six innings with just three hits allowed, one walk and two strikeouts. He missed much of the 2014 season with an injured hand, which makes his return and quality first start, a welcome sight for the Chargers.
He got quick run support in the opener thanks to a four-run second inning by Hillsdale. Joe Gentile drew a bases-loaded walk, with outfielder Connor Bartlett later scoring on a wild pitch. Junior Luke Ortel's RBI single scored Gentile to complete the rally, which was started by a leadoff single by sophomore Ethan Wiskur.
Junior Chris McDonald scored what turned out to be the game-winning run in the third, also off a wild pitch after a single to lead off the inning.
Ortel and McDonald each went 2-for-4 for the Chargers, while Sean Bennett scored a run.
Senior Nolan Breymaier went 3-for-3 in the 4-1 loss in game 2, and drove in the team's only run. Wiskur picked up two more hits, while senior Vinny Delicata had a hit and a run scored.