Paul Noce, head coach of the Hillsdale College baseball team, said that their bats have come alive.
“The guys have stepped up. We’ve had some severe injuries so some other guys are getting to play,” Noce said. “They’re doing a good job.”
The baseball team played six games in the last week. Of those six games, they won three and lost three. Their overall record now sits at 9-27, 7-17 in the GLIAC.
The Chargers split a doubleheader against Wayne State University on April 18.
Hillsdale won the first game 11-5. At the top of the sixth, Wayne State hit a three-run homer. Hillsdale answered with two runs off senior center fielder Pat O’Hearn’s bunt and then another three runs off a hit by junior third baseman Scott Lantis.
“We dropped five runs on them at the end. It solidified the win,” Noce said. “[Junior centerfielder] Brad Hayden and Lantis both had big hits.”
But in the second game, the Chargers fell 17-9.
“We scored nine runs, but they scored 17,” Noce said. “We just missed too many locations on pitches today.”
The Chargers played Northwood University in a weekend series on April 14 and 15. The teams split the doubleheaders in a series riddled with bad weather.
In game one, Hillsdale narrowly beat Northwood 18-17 in the highest scoring game the men have played all season. Combined, the two teams had 38 hits.
“We tried to approach the innings one at a time. Walk hit, walk hit, hit by pitch, and so on,” O’Hearn said.
In the bottom of the first, Hillsdale started racking up runs. Northwood did not score until the top of the fourth when they batted in five runs. But in the fifth inning, Hillsdale scored 12 times off of only seven hits. Northwood made five errors.
“It was a combination of their errors and our hits that led us to get 12 runs. I didn’t realize we had hit 12 runs until I look up and saw it flashing one-two,” O’Hearn said. “I had never been a part of anything like that.”
Northwood nearly overtook Hillsdale in the top of the seventh when they got nine runs, but senior pitcher Kris Morris once again got the save for Hillsdale.
Senior catcher Chris Stephens led the team with four hits, one run, and seven RBIs. Following him, senior outfielder Mike Blanchard had four runs, two hits, and one RBI. Every player that batted for Hillsdale scored at least one time.
“Mike has really been our offensive leader this whole year,” O’Hearn said.
The Saturday evening game went to nine innings. The game was tied 9-9, but it was suspended when it became too dark for the men to play. On Sunday morning, the game was postponed due to lightning. Once the game finally resumed, the men played to 11 innings before Northwood hit a grand slam to win the game 13-9.
“That’s the second time in 19 seasons that that has happened, where we had to continue the second day,” Noce said.
The third game of the series lead to Hillsdale’s second win, 12-10. Northwood was unable to retake the lead the Chargers got in the second inning by getting six runs, three off of a homer from Stephens.
Stephens had another four hits and four RBIs. Morris got the save.
“This is definitely [Chris’] best weekend ever,” O’Hearn said. “He has been a good hitter all four years, but this was his best weekend.”
Northwood split the series by winning the fourth game 5-1. Unlike the other games of the weekend, Hillsdale could not get more than four hits. Junior right fielder Scott Rhodes had the lone RBI.
The men will play at Tiffin University on Saturday and Sunday.
