2016 GLIAC Baseball Tournament Webpage
For the first time in 13 years, the Hillsdale College baseball team is headed to the conference tournament.
The Chargers finished the regular season 30-20 overall and 18-14 in conference play, earning the No. 6 seed in the postseason tournament. The team will take on Grand Valley State, the top seed, at 2 p.m. Thursday in the first round. Other first-round matchups are Wayne State versus Malone, and Walsh against Ashland.
The double-elimination tournament will be held at the Athletes in Action Sports Complex in Xenia, Ohio.
Many firsts were achieved by this year's Charger baseball team. Led by All-American candidate Luke Ortel team made a habit of coming from behind, winning close games late, and hitting home runs at an historic rate to piece together its first-ever 30-win season.
If the Chargers are to make a run in their first postseason appearance since 2003, it will happen via their lineup. This year's team has belted 62 home runs, second-most in GLIAC history for a single season. Four players have 10 or more home runs, while in more than 70 years of baseball at the college, only two players had previously produced 10-plus home run seasons.
But the team's productivity went beyond just hitting home runs. The Chargers led the GLIAC in the regular season in runs scored, stolen bases, triples, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The team was second in doubles, and scored 10 or more runs 16 times, or 32 percent of its total games. Six starters batted .325 or better during the season, and five players recorded 60-plus hit seasons. No matter how you slice it, navigating one's way through the Charger lineup is a daunting task.
Several players on the Chargers are also familiar with Grady's Field, where all the tournament games will be played. Ortel, Tad Sobieszczanski, Will Kruse and Joe Chasen have all played there regularly in the summer with the Athletes in Action program. Grady's Field is a turf field, still not a common sight among Division II facilities, and it's something that could be a factor in Hillsdale's favor. Ground balls tend to scoot through the infield faster there than they would in a regular grass-and-dirt surface, which could favor teams that make frequent contact with the baseball like Hillsdale.
No one has made more frequent contact with the baseball than Ortel, who has put up absurd offensive numbers this season. Entering the postseason tournament, he led the GLIAC in 10 offensive statistical categories while setting the conference's single-season record for hits with 103. His eight triples, 26 doubles, 27 stolen bases, .475 batting average, 68 runs scored, .806 slugging percentage and 11 hit by pitch all led the conference in 2016. Teams would employ unusual defensive shifts or alignments against him, it didn't matter. Ortel can hit with power to all fields and has the kind of speed on the basepaths that can start, or extend rallies. He also produced 48 runs batted in, which for a leadoff hitter, is nothing short of amazing, and indicative of the depth of Hillsdale's batting lineup.
Sobieszczanski has two 60-hit seasons to his credit, and was recently named GLIAC Player of the Week after hitting 5 home runs in six games.
Senior Chris McDonald is not only the program's all-time leader in RBI with 121, but this season, set the school's single-season saves record with 11. His 12 home runs rank him fourth in the GLIAC and are the third-most in a season in school history.
Senior Connor Bartlett is a left-handed power hitter who also put together his best offensive season in 2016. He hit four home runs in his first three seasons at Hillsdale, but has belted out 10 this year to go along with a .360 batting average. Bartlett, Sobieszczanski and Ortel make up the starting outfield for the Chargers, and they have combined for 234 hits, 30 home runs and 129 runs batted in.
Junior Ethan Wiskur has been healthy and lethal with the bat as the team's cleanup hitter. He is second on the team with 74 hits, which would have been a single-season school record until this year. He has a .387 batting average, good for fifth in the GLIAC, and he has 6 home runs, 45 RBI and 45 runs scored.
Sophomore second baseman Alex Walts has gotten in on the fun too, batting .337. Catcher Joe Gentile has also stepped up in his senior season with a .292 batting average and a career-high 38 total hits.
Add it all up, and Hillsdale will be a tough out for any teams it could face in the GLIAC Tournament. The Chargers did not play Malone this year, and went 4-4 against Wayne State and Walsh. Ashland and Grand Valley State – the two division champions – went a combined 7-1 against the Chargers and were fairly successful at quieting the Charger bats in those games. But in a tournament format, anything can happen, and while Hillsdale might be the sixth seed in a six-team tournament, it has the offense to battle it out with any team, anytime, anywhere.