SCHEDULE
Ursuline (10-22, 10-10 G-MAC) at Hillsdale College (29-15, 17-5 G-MAC) | 12:30 p.m ET Thursday, May 6 | Anderson Field – Findlay, Ohio | Watch
Championship Central | Full Bracket | 2021 Hillsdale Stats
Outlook: Hillsdale looks to win its third straight conference tournament crown after taking titles in 2018 and 2019, as it travels to Findlay, Ohio for the G-MAC Tournament this Thursday through Saturday.
On paper, this is the best Hillsdale team entering the tournament in the four years the Chargers have spent as a G-MAC member. After entering the 2018 tourney seeded 4th and the 2019 tourney seeded 8th, the Chargers come into this year's championship seeded second after going 29-15 in the regular season, their best record in 30 years. Not since the 40-5 Chargers in 1991 has Hillsdale been so successful in the regular season.
Fueling the Chargers' success is a record-setting offensive season. Hillsdale already has broken the single-season program record for home runs (35), and is on pace to break records for runs scored, doubles, RBIs and walks drawn as well.
At the plate, seniors Sam Catron and Madison Stoner are both having excellent seasons. Catron has 14 home runs, just one off the single-season school record of 15, and also is hitting .408 with a team-best 60 total hits. At 19 doubles and 46 RBIs on the year, Catron needs just two more doubles and four more RBIs this weekend to break the single-season school records as well.
Stoner, meanwhile, has been on a tear at the plate, leading the Chargers in batting average (.449) and on-base percentage (.517) with seven doubles, a triple and seven home runs. Stoner's slugging percentage, if maintained through the end of the season, would be the fifth -highest in a single season in program history.
Seven Chargers in total are hitting above .300 for the season, including senior Natalie Stepanenko and junior Renee Bielawa, who have combined for 25 doubles and 54 RBIs on the season.
While the Chargers have been strong offensively, their pitching and defense have more than held up their end of the bargain, as well.
With two-time G-MAC Softball Pitcher of the Week Dana Weidinger on the mound, Hillsdale has a chance in every contest, as Weidinger is 18-4 with a 1.93 ERA and 115 strikeouts to 31 walks this season. Junior Camryn Olson, freshman Erin Kapteyn and senior Julia Sayles give the Chargers solid options in the second game of doubleheaders.
Defensively, the Chargers are posting a .959 fielding percentage, a mark that would be seventh-best in school history if maintained through the end of the season.
Hillsdale opens the tournament with a first-round game against Ursuline at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Arrows enter the game at 10-22 overall, 10-10 in G-MAC play, and were swept by the Chargers, 5-0 and 13-2, on Apr. 24.
Ursuline has a solid offense, with six regular starters batting north of .300, though they don't have the power to match the top teams in the conference, with just seven home runs this season.
Freshman first baseman/outfielder Kiley Gallagher leads Ursuline in home runs (3) and is second in RBIs (16), while senior first baseman Alyssa Baratta is batting .352 with 17 RBIs as well.
On the mound, six different pitchers have started for the Arrows this season, with Tara Backherms getting the most work, with a 3-3 record and a 4.97 ERA in nine starts. Ashlee Zientek has posted a 1-8 record with a 5.18 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 15 appearances and seven starts as well for Ursuline, while Nicole Rawlings has been Ursuline's most effective pitcher, with a 5-3 record in six starts, a team-best 3.02 ERA and a team-high 25 strikeouts.
In the doubleheader against the Chargers, Ursuline struggled to catch up to Hillsdale's pitching, finishing with just six hits and two runs, both of which were scored on a Hillsdale error. For the Chargers, it took a little bit to solve Arrow starter Kelsey Jakosh, but the Hillsdale bats caught fire to pull away late, and that carried over to a dominant second game performance at the plate.
It's worth noting that in that doubleheader, the Chargers didn't face either Backherms or Rawlings, the two pitchers Ursuline will likely choose between to start on Thursday.
Win or lose, the Chargers will play again on Thursday, either at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of third-seeded Malone and sixth-seeded Ohio Dominican with a victory, or in an elimination game at 3 p.m. against the loser of the 3-6 game with a loss.
The Chargers can claim the conference title with as few as four straight victories, or be forced to play through as many as seven games to claim the crown if they drop into the consolation bracket early on, making a strong start on Thursday critical for the Chargers' title hopes.