Freshman Isaac Scavarda on the mound during the Chargers’ win against Wayne State Tuesday. Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose
Sophomore Jake Figman delivered a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning after hitting a game-tying pinch-hit RBI double in the seventh to lead the Hillsdale baseball team to an 11-10 victory over No. 15-ranked Wayne State University April 14. The Chargers season record now stands at 17-19.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” head coach Tom Vessella said. “It’s easy to just give up when you fall behind so early in a ballgame. The only thing you can do is chip away until you have a big inning and that’s exactly what they did. They didn’t stop.”
Entering the bottom of the seventh inning down 10-4, the Chargers rallied to tie the game, capped off by Figman’s double. Freshman Drew Law, who came in to pitch in the seventh, retired all nine Wayne State batters he faced to help set up the game-winning rally.
Earlier in the week, the team took three out of four games against Lake Erie College in Midland, Ohio April 11-12.
“Our starting pitching really stepped up this weekend,” Vessella said. “All four starters gave us quality starts that put us in a position to win all four games.”
After losing the first game on Saturday 2-1, the Chargers won the second game 9-4 later in the day thanks to key hits from sophomores Gaard Swenson and Will Lehman, and junior Aaron Jasiak.
“Against Lake Erie, we did a much better job at clutch pitching and defense,” Swenson said. “There were many times when Erie had runners in scoring position with less than two outs, and they could not score any runs.”
Swenson said the team had a mental reset after the first game.
“One of our seniors, Tyler Turner, got all the guys together and really motivated us to play hard and to play loose,” Swenson said. “This significantly helped the tension we may have felt from losing a few games in a row and really set us up for success.”
The Chargers won the first game on Sunday 5-1 thanks to a five-inning start from senior Patrick MacLean and three scoreless innings from sophomore Josh Novak. Novak kept the Chargers in a 1-1 tie before they broke through for four runs in the eighth inning.
“Pat MacLean had his first start of the season and he looked really good,” Novak said. “We’ve probably rounded out our rotation.”
Novak said he enjoys pitching in high-leverage situations.
“I like it because you take the preparation more seriously,” Novak said. “I don’t know if it’s like that for everyone, but I’ve enjoyed being able to pitch back-to-back days and pitch in the seventh, eighth, or ninth innings.”
The Chargers will play a series at home against the University of Findlay April 17-20 before travelling to Detroit for another game against Wayne State April 21.
