The Hillsdale College softball team split a doubleheader with Saginaw State University on Tuesday. After losing the first game 7-3, the Chargers bounced back with a 1-0 win, bringing their GLIAC record to 10-8.
“We were able to come back and rekindle that flame and got a win out of that second game,” junior shortstop Kate Hoop said.
The Saginaw Cardinals had a strong third and fourth inning in the first game. They had five of their runs in the third and the other two in the fourth.
“For the most part, [Saginaw Valley] earned what they got,” head coach Joe Abraham said. “Saginaw hit the ball really well in the first game. They just outhit us.”
In the fifth inning, with junior pitcher Brittany Hulett and junior second baseman Miriam McKay on base, Hoop homered to right center for the Chargers’ only three runs of the game.
“She had walked two girls before me, so I went up there and knew she wasn’t going to want to walk a third person,” Hoop said. “I was just ready to lock and load on it, and she threw it right down the middle of the plate.”
Hulett came in during the fifth inning and held Saginaw Valley to only one hit and no runs the rest of the game, but it still was not enough to make up the deficit.
In the second game, back-to-back doubles from senior pitcher Laura Homan and junior center fielder Taylor Schulty secured the win for the Chargers with the only run of the game.
Homan did not allow any runs and only three hits.
“I think the thing with our team this year is that we just never give up,” Schulty said. “We just keep going at it.”
Over the weekend, the Chargers managed to take one game from the Ferris State University Bulldogs, but lost the series 3-1.
“We’re getting good pitching and playing pretty good defense,” Abraham said. “We just have to find more offense.”
Hoop said the final game of the series on Saturday really stuck out in her mind. Though the previous three games had been losses, the Chargers turned it around and won the fourth and final game 2-1.
The Chargers were the first team to score in the third inning of the game. With senior left fielder Allison Hetrick on first base, Hoop grounded out to third base to get her teammate on second. Senior third baseman Jessica Guertin came to the plate and hit a double, driving Hetrick home.
The Bulldogs responded with a run in the top of the fourth inning, but Chargers’ sophomore catcher Mary Depner responded with an RBI, hitting in Homan.
Both Guertin and Homan hit 2-for-3 in the game.
But the play that Hoop said secured the game for the Chargers was defensive.
In the seventh inning, with a runner on base, Ferris’ shortstop came up to bat. A run would have meant a tied game. But the Ferris player hit a liner and Hetrick made a diving catch, getting the third out and securing the win.
“That was an epic game,” Hoop said. “It was one of those moments you’re never going to forget.”
In the first game of the weekend, Ferris took control of the game in the third inning, getting hit after hit. The Chargers could not recover and lost 9-1.
“I think hitting is definitely contagious, and when you get people whose bats are hot, it’s a domino effect from there,” Hoop said.
In the second game of the day, Ferris had a big fourth inning with four runs. A homerun by one of the Bulldogs contributed three of the four runs. The Chargers managed to put up one run but were once again defeated 7-1.
Ferris’ pitcher threw a no-hitter in the third game, and the Bulldogs shut out the Chargers 4-0.
The Chargers will face Ashland University, Lake Erie College, and Ohio Dominican University at home on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
