The Hillsdale College softball team had a gut-check moment after a gut-punch loss on the road at Ashland on Saturday.
The Chargers blew a six-run lead late in the first game to take a devastating defeat in 10 innings, 8-7, but Hillsdale showed its resilience by locking in on the second game, taking the lead midway through the contest and holding on for a 5-2 victory to salvage a split with the Eagles in extra innings.
Sophomore Maggie Olaveson continued her red-hot streak at the plate by putting the Chargers ahead not once, but twice early in the second contest, giving the Chargers a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a RBI single, and, after Ashland answered in the bottom of the inning, bashing her 10th home run of the season over the center field wall in the top of the third inning to give Hillsdale a 2-1 edge.
Ashland answered that run in the bottom of the inning as well, but Hillsdale kept swinging. Freshman Sydney Davis put Hillsdale up for good with a two-out RBI double in the top of the fourth, and senior Grace Wallner and junior Emma Vis each added an insurance run with two more RBI doubles in the fifth and seventh inning respectively.
In the circle, Joni Russell shook off an uncharacteristic first start with a solid game two performance to help the Chargers take victory, striking out six, walking one and giving up just one earned run in four innings of work to record the victory. Senior Erin Kapteyn finished the win in long relief to earn the save, pitching three scoreless innings with one strikeout and just two hits conceded. Davis and Olaveson each went 3 for 4 to lead the Chargers at the plate in the nightcap.
Hillsdale looked like they had the first game of the day in hand as well. The Chargers pounced on an early error by the Eagles to plate five runs in the top of the first inning, on a two-run home run by Olaveson and a three-run blast by Vis. The Chargers added two insurance runs in the fourth and fifth innings on Ashland errors to build a 7-1 lead and entered the bottom of the sixth just six outs away from victory.
Things unraveled in that inning, however, as Ashland took advantage of a critical Hillsdale error and peppered four hits to plate five runs and turn a 7-1 walkover into a 7-6 dogfight. In the bottom of the seventh, the Chargers had another chance to escape with a victory, but another poorly timed error allowed the tying run to get across and forced extra innings.
The Chargers were unable to score in three extra innings, and it was Ashland who broke through in the top of the 10th, executing two perfect bunts to move the international tiebreak runner from second to third and then drive her home to walk off.
Olaveson had another three-hit performance to lead the way for the Chargers despite the loss, while Hannah Hoverman and Vis each added two hits. Kapteyn took the loss in relief for Hillsdale despite giving up no earned runs in four and a third innings, with two strikeouts and a walk. Russell pitched the first five and a third innings, with 10 strikeouts and four walks.
The Chargers are now 26-12 overall, 12-4 in the G-MAC and face a huge test on Sunday with a trip to G-MAC title contender Ohio Dominican for a noon doubleheader. ODU enters in second place in the G-MAC, just ahead of Hillsdale, and comes in with confidence after a sweep of a strong Northwood team today. They're wins Hillsdale desperately needs as they try to keep current G-MAC leader Trevecca Nazarene from running away with the regular season title, and try to boost the Chargers' own NCAA tournament resume for a potential at-large bid in May.
Photo by Reva Ludwig