Game 1 box score: Findlay 17, Hillsdale 3
Game 2 box score: Hillsdale 9, Findlay 3
Two very different games unfolded on Simpson Field Wednesday afternoon between longtime baseball rivals Hillsdale and Findlay. By the time the day ended, one of the Chargers' many talented seniors made school history.
Senior Chris McDonald broke the program record for most runs batted in during a career, with his 3 RBI performance in Hillsdale's 9-3 win over the Oilers in the second game of their GLIAC doubleheader.
Findlay won the opener by a score of 17-3. The Chargers are now 20-10 overall and 8-4 in the GLIAC.
McDonald entered the game with 99 career runs batted in, tied with 2009 graduate Brandon Hubbard. McDonald's third-inning single in game two scored senior Luke Ortel for the record-breaking RBI. But he wasn't done, driving in two more as part of Hillsdale's late-inning rally that clinched the doubleheader split with the Oilers.
Not content to set a cherished offensive record, McDonald recorded a two-inning save, his school-record 11th of the season, closing the door on a comeback victory.
Faced with a pitching shortage, the team turned to freshman Jacob Hoover who made his first pitching appearance of his collegiate career in the nightcap, and acquitted himself well, going 4 2/3 innings with one earned run allowed and three strikeouts.
The Charger bullpen was effective, keeping the Oilers off the board in the game's last four-plus innings. Senior Mitchell Gatt got the win thanks to a dominating seventh inning. Seniors Lucas Hamelink and Evan Chalker contributed solid relief innings on the mound in the win.
Down 3-1 in the sixth, Hillsdale's offense found a rhythm for the first time all day. The Chargers scored two in the sixth, two in the seventh and four more in the eighth.
Ortel, Tad Sobieszczanski and Connor Bartlett all went 3-for-5 in the win for Hillsdale. Joe Gentile, Alex Walts, Ethan Wiskur and McDonald all picked up two hits in the Chargers' 17-hit outburst.
In game one, Hillsdale took a 3-2 lead in the first inning, helped by home runs by Ortel and Bartlett. But the lead would be short-lived, as Findlay exploded for six runs in the top of the second to take a big lead. Findlay outhit Hillsdale by just one, 14-13, but the Chargers stranded 11 runners on base, continually threatening to score, but coming up short.
Ortel was 3-for-4 with a single, double and a home run in the first game. Wiskur also went 3-for-4 and Bartlett and Walts had multi-hit games.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale hosts Ashland for a four-game weekend series starting at 1 p.m. Saturday.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kadie Lowery