Schedule:
Parkside (4-3) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Parkside (4-3) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Malone (5-6) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 1 p.m. Saturday, March 14 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Malone (5-6) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Malone (5-6) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 1 p.m. Sunday, March 15 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Malone (5-6) at Hillsdale College (3-9) | 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15 | Simpson Field | Video | Live Stats
Preview:
Thanks to an early onset of spring in southern Michigan, Hillsdale College looks poised to have a busy week of baseball at Simpson Field to kick off the 2020 home slate.
Hillsdale opens with a doubleheader against visiting Wisconsin-Parkside on Wednesday. The Rangers were picked to finish last in the GLIAC in the preseason, but are off to a solid start in 2020 and coming off a four-game sweep of Upper Iowa this past weekend.
The key to Parkside's start has been solid production at the plate. The Rangers are hitting .279 as a team, with infielder Austin Emanuel leading the way with a .423 batting average, while catcher Nicholas Eisenmenger and infielder Dominic Esposito provide power to the Parkside lineup with 3 home runs each.
The Rangers' pitching staff has been shakier than the lineup. It's unknown how Parkside will deploy its pitchers with a conference series on tap this weekend, but Matt Helwig (1-1, 6.75 ERA), Hunter Waddel (0-0, 7.20 ERA) and Aaron Cusimano (1-1, 9.25 ERA) all have multiple starts this season for the Rangers.
The Parkside series is Hillsdale's last nonconference action before getting into GMAC play with a four-game series against Malone this weekend.
The Pioneers are 5-6 heading into the Hillsdale game, but were 5-1 before getting roughed up in Florida during a spring break trip this past week.
In many ways, Malone is the inverse of Parkside as a team that's struggling to hit and getting carried by its pitching staff.
The Pioneers enter hitting just .199 at the plate and have just one player with multiple extra base hits, Joe Crank, who is hitting .237 with two doubles.
Turner Hall is leading Malone at the plate, hitting .316 so far in 11 games.
On the mound, Malone has two solid starters: Eric Mullet, who is 1-1 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts, and Tommy Walker, who is 1-0 with a 2.79 ERA.
Clyde Yoder is 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA as well for the Pioneers, while the fourth spot in the rotation has been shared between multiple arms so far.
Malone was picked second out of six teams in the GMAC East Division, behind Ohio Dominican, with four first place votes, while Hillsdale was picked fourth in the West Division.
Hillsdale and Malone didn't play in the 2019 season. In their most recent series, in 2018, the Pioneers took two of three from the Chargers.