The Hillsdale College baseball team got in an early hole for the second straight game against Saginaw Valley State on the road on Wednesday, but, unlike the night before, the Chargers weren't able to dig themselves out this time in a 10-4 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals.
SVSU got revenge for a wild Hillsdale victory on Tuesday night, as the Chargers overcame a four-run deficit in the final inning for an 18-17 victory. On Wednesday, Hillsdale was unable to break through a strong effort by the Cardinals pitching staff, which held the Chargers to eight runs on four hits. That meant a 7-1 lead built by the Cardinals in the first four innings held up to the finish, with three additional insurance runs by SVSU in the seventh adding additional cushion.
Trailing 4-0 in the top of the fourth, Hillsdale broke through, with Kaden Nowak taking advantage of a leadoff error by SVSU to drive in a run on a single to left field. After the Cardinals scored three more runs to answer Hillsdale at the plate in the bottom of the inning, the Chargers made one more push in the sixth and seventh innings, on a RBI triple from Zak Kent that scored Joe Hardenbergh, and a RBI single by Will Shannon that scored Jaekob Sallee to cut the deficit to 7-3 entering the bottom of the seventh inning.
SVSU's three additional runs in that frame were a big blow to the Chargers' hopes, however, and despite a RBI double by Will Millard, Hillsdale was unable to put together a miracle comeback with three outs left for the second night in a row.
Sallee added a double for Hillsdale at the plate, and, in his first game in a Charger uniform, redshirt freshman Max French added a double as well. Daly Skees got the start and took the loss for the Chargers on the mound, Luke Miller pitched two innings and struck out two in relief for Hillsdale, and redshirt freshman Logan McLaughlin also made his Chargers debut, going an inning and a third with a strikeout and a walk. Josh Novak, Drew Olssen and Kolin Endres all pitched for Hillsdale as well in the contest.
Hillsdale falls to 4-9 overall, but has a chance to turn things around this weekend as conference play starts. The Chargers will host Findlay for a four-game set, with doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday against the Oilers starting at 1 p.m. Saturday's games will be Hillsdale's first opportunity to play on the newly constructed TFO Partners Field at Lenda and Glenda Hill Stadium, complete with a synthetic turf field, stadium lights, a video board, and covered chair-back seating. Admission will be free for all contests this weekend.
Photo by Steve George