Game 1 box score: Hillsdale 4, Grand Valley State 2
Game 2 box score: Grand Valley State 6, Hillsdale 2
The Charger baseball team completed its two-city weekend series with Grand Valley State all even after the teams split their doubleheader in Allendale Sunday afternoon.
Behind the splendid pitching of junior Will Kruse, Hillsdale won the opener by a score of 4-2. The Lakers used two three-run innings to post a 6-2 win over the Chargers in the nightcap.
Hillsdale is now 14-14 in the GLIAC and 21-22 overall, with just four games left in the conference schedule.
Kruse set a new career-high with 11 strikeouts in his complete-game gem in the opener. He opened the game by striking out three of the four batters he faced in the first inning, and exerted control of the plate throughout the game. He didn't walk a batter and allowed just one earned run in a signature performance on the mound.
Junior Ryan O'Hearn provided much of the team's offense in the win. He hit a three-run home run, his first of the season, in the fifth inning to spring the Chargers from a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead. O'Hearn scored a big insurance run off an infield hit by Colin Hites in the seventh inning.
O'Hearn was 2-for-2 with 3 RBI and two runs scored. Jake Rhodes had a hit and a run scored also.
In game 2, Hillsdale took a 2-0 lead after O'Hearn scored on a groundout by Colin Boerst. But the Lakers struck for three runs in the fifth and seventh innings, which turned out to be enough.
O'Hearn had another big game at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a run scored, and Jake Rhodes picked up a double.