Ignore the seeding.
When it comes to the G-MAC baseball tournament, no one in the league is a tougher out than the Hillsdale College Chargers.
Hillsdale proved this again on Thursday at Prasco Park, following up an upset of third-seeded Ohio Dominican on Wednesday by taking down second-seeded Walsh, 9-7, and move just one win away from reaching the G-MAC Championship game on Saturday.
The win moves Hillsdale to 6-1 all-time in G-MAC Tournament contests, including a 4-1 run to the title in 2018. An amazing five of those six wins have come as the lower seed, including both victories so far this season.
The sixth-seeded Chargers showed they were unfazed by the difference in seeding early against the Cavaliers, taking advantage of a leadoff triple by Cody Kanclerz with a RBI single by Nick Stepke to go ahead, 1-0, in the top of the first inning. Hillsdale tacked on another run on a sacrifice fly by James Krick in the second inning, but the Charger bats went quiet after that, and a three-run home run by G-MAC Player of the Year Andrew Czech helped Walsh jump out to a 5-2 lead through six innings.
The Chargers needed a big response to get back in the game, and did just that, catching fire in the top of the seventh inning. Centerfielder Cooper Peterson led off the inning with a solo home run, keying a five run outburst that gave the Chargers a 7-5 lead. Senior Rob Zurawski came up with a big single to centerfield that scored two runs and tied the game at 5-all as well in the inning, and Aidan Brewer chipped in a RBI single as well.
Hillsdale tacked on two more insurance runs in the ninth. Zurawski came through again in a big situation, following up a Kanclerz leadoff walk with a triple that scored the junior from Plymouth, Michigan to make it an 8-5 game. Nick Stepke chipped in a single up the middle to score Zurawski as well and give the Chargers a four-run lead with just the bottom of the innth remaining.
Down to their last three outs, Walsh put pressure on the Chargers, getting their first two batters on base, and turning them into runs when Brennen Spaulding hit a double to right center. But when Spaulding came too far off of second base looking to turn two bases into three on the throw back into the infield, Hillsdale caught him, with the shortstop Brewer relaying the ball to second baseman Zurawski for a critical second out.
Relief pitcher Paul Brophy was able to induce a pop fly from the next Walsh batter, and seal a 9-7 victory that keeps the Chargers advancing in the tournament's winners bracket.
Andrew Verbrugge got the start for Hillsdale and was solid, going six strong innings with a strikeout and a walk to record his team-leading sixth victory of the year. Brophy closed the final three innings of the game to record his second save of the season.
Zurawski, Stepke and Peterson each finished with two hits to lead the Chargers offensively.
Hillsdale (21-21) now advances to the winner's bracket final on Friday at noon, where the Chargers will face top-seeded Trevecca Nazarene with a berth in Saturday's championship game on the line. Not only will the victor advance to the championship, but they'll have a critical edge in Saturday's game -- needing to win only one of two potential contests to claim the title in the double-elimination tournament, while their opponent would have to beat them twice.
Photo by Ralph Schudel