Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose
The Hillsdale baseball team lost two of three games against the University of Missouri-St. Louis in Edwardsville, Illinois, March 6-8, ending its stretch of non-conference play and moving to a 4-9 record.
Sophomore outfielder Gaard Swenson led off the first inning of Friday’s game with a home run. The Chargers kept the lead the rest of the game on their way to a 10-3 victory.
“The offense was really strong, especially in the first game,” Swenson said. “We were able to make quality contact almost every at-bat, and we scored many runs as a result.”
Sophomore first baseman Will Lehman added a home run and five RBIs, and junior third baseman Rocco Tenuta went 2-for-3 with a walk and two hit-by-pitches.
Junior pitcher Jacob Pallo got the win, striking out four and scattering four hits over six innings. Senior pitcher Patrick MacLean closed out the game, striking out five over three scoreless innings.
“What went best in the series was our pitching staff’s ability to throw strikes,” Pallo said. “The previous three series we struggled with giving up free bases, so it was great to see our staff compete in the zone.”
Sophomore Brenden Smith pitched the second game and struck out 10 over six innings of work, but took the loss after allowing three unearned runs. Junior pitcher Hayden Hoffpauir was the last pitcher of the game for the Chargers and struck out each of the five batters he faced in the 5-2 loss.
“We pitched so much better as a staff,” head coach Tom Vessella said. “Our starters went deep into the games, we had a 70% strike rate in total, and almost a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio. If we continue to hit those marks week in and week out, we will be in a lot of ball games.”
In the final game of the series, the Chargers scored 7 runs on 14 hits, but lost 10-7.
Tenuta said the team has improved through its first few series.
“We did a better job of attacking,” Tenuta said. “When we were having success we were being aggressive earlier in the count. We need to do that more often.”
Tenuta said he is confident about the team’s chances in conference play.
“We’re learning well from playing these teams in non-conference,” Tenuta said. “We’ve played a bunch of really good teams and we’re still learning and growing from it, but I think we’ll have more success in conference play now that we’ve played a lot of these tougher teams earlier in the season.”
The Chargers will open conference play with a four-game series against Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, March 14-15.
“Conference is everything for us,” Vessella said. “It is a fresh start to the season, big rivalries, and home games. It is what we’ve been looking forward to since we started in the fall.”
