Softball wins first games of G-MAC season

Home Charger Softball Softball wins first games of G-MAC season
Softball wins first games of G-MAC season

The Hillsdale College softball team won both games of its home doubleheader on Friday, March 25 against Lake Erie College. 

“My biggest thing was just that it was everyone contributing,” sophomore shortstop Hailey Holtman said. “There wasn’t anyone that played in that game that didn’t do something. It was just really cool to see all of us come together, put together a little piece, and come out with a really good team run like that.”

Pitchers sophomore Erin Katepyn and freshman Joni Russel only gave up a single run throughout both games. The Chargers scored 17 runs, 19 hits, and zero errors across two games. 

“With the first conference games, it’s like your season starts again, like everything you’ve done is what you’re playing for now,” Coach Kyle Gross said. “There’s an intensity that maybe some of the other games don’t have as much, but I would say they don’t really play any different. It’s just a different feeling.” 

Rain on Friday stopped at 2:15 p.m. in time for the team’s 2:30 p.m. game, and resumed at 6:00 p.m. after the second game ended at 5:45 p.m. Typical early spring weather challenged the Chargers with temperatures in the low 40s throughout the afternoon.

“Honestly, at this point, we’ve had crazy enough weather the entire season that we’re getting used to it now,” Holtman said. “Wednesday, we go to Tiffin, and 25 mph winds are expected. We’ve had so many issues that, it’s just kind of like, ‘oh, this is just part of the game.’”  

According to Gross and a few of the players, both games saw excellence in all regards. Pitching, outfielding, and hitting worked together to yield this weekend’s scores. The biggest hitters were senior catcher Madison Stoner and senior utility player Madison Rathbun. Holtman opened the score of the first game in the second inning with a homerun. 

“The first pitch I had at bat I hit wrong and Coach was telling me what adjustments needed to be made,” Holtman said. “I made the adjustments like he wanted me to and hit the home run. It was just really cool adjusting in the middle of the at-bat. He was really excited about that, too, and we needed to get on the board, so it was good to get that going and feel like the momentum shifted after that.” 

The originally planned games against Tiffin University at Tiffin, Ohio were postponed to this Wednesday, March 30 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The team will also play against Cedarville on Saturday, April 2 and against Davenport on Monday, April 4. 

“Conference season is a lot more emotional,” freshman utility player Ashley Strick said. “For our team, I think because we all know the teams that we’re playing against, we have rivalries with some of them. We have the same mindset going into all of our games that we want to win, we want to dominate, and be the best on the field.”