The Hillsdale Chargers baseball team has a long road ahead of them to the conference tournament, but this Wednesday they came a little bit closer to the realization of their hopes with two wins at Northwood University.
The first game was a continuation of last Wednesday’s weather-postponed game. The Chargers won 3-0 behind sophomore Shane Armstrong’s complete game shutout.
The Chargers had 11 hits in their second game, beating Northwood 3-1. Freshman Lucas Hamelink earned the win and sophomore Dan Pochmara got his second save.
Wednesday’s wins follow a weekend series where the Chargers lost two out of three, but finished the series with a win that lifted the team’s spirits.
Saturday’s two losses against Wayne State were overshadowed by the Chargers’ 6-1 win on Sunday. Sophomore Kris Morris built on his previous start, throwing 7.2 more quality innings. Morris allowed only one run, and Hamelink finished the game. Freshman Luke Ortel, sophomore Vinny Delicata, and senior Scott Lantis all had two hits in the game, one of them being a home run for Lantis. Freshman Geordy Smith had a triple.
“Kris Morris was phenomenal for us,” Lantis said. “It was good for us to finally pick up our teammate and score some runs for him. It’s games like that where you see a guy go out and compete that are very inspiring for the rest of the team.”
Hillsdale lost to Wayne State in the first game on Saturday 6-5. Junior Dan Pochmara allowed a home run in the final inning of the devastating loss. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Chargers got only five hits and lost 10-4.
“It was a very competitive series,” coach Paul Noce said of the games against Wayne State. “The team played well and had a lot of passion. Wayne State is a very good team, so it was good to bounce back on Sunday with a great win. It shows the guys that they can beat the best teams, which they have been doing all year.”
The last game is on May 5th, and the GLIAC conference tournament begins at the end of the regular season. Noce said the team is hoping to make the conference tournament.
“The guys have a sense of urgency at this point,” he said. “We need to win games for the rest of the season in order to have a chance.”
As of Wednesday, the Chargers are 8-12 in the conference and eighth in the GLIAC standings.
Assistant coach Eric Thiessen said the Chargers face a challenge, but advancing to the tournament is possible.
“We have the talent to make a strong push at the end,” he said. “We have to play smart and minimize mistakes. This is baseball. The team that minimizes mistakes best wins.”
Theissen said a season is a journey with peaks and valleys, and the goal is to become and remain consistent.
“The process is trying to string together quality starts, string together quality at-bats, and if we do that, we have a pretty good chance,” he said.
The team is realistic and understands the task in front of them.
“The first thing that we have to realize is it is a daunting challenge to get into the conference tournament,” Lantis said. “We put ourselves in this position, and we’ll have to go 10-5 in the rest of the games in order to make the conference.”
The Chargers have already played the top five teams in the conference, and are hopeful that their schedule will help them make a late-season run. Lantis said Sunday’s win was the team’s most complete win with contributions from many different players. They hope the win will launch them into a winning streak.
“This is baseball. Anything can happen,” Lantis said. “We will keep working hard and we still believe that we’ll be in eastern Michigan in the second week of May playing in the conference tournament.”
