Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose

Thanks to two late-game rallies, the Hillsdale baseball team won two of three games on the road against Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee Feb. 6-8, lifting its season record to 3-3.

“We are learning more and more about our team each week and the type of competitors we are,” head coach Tom Vessella said. “I’m really proud of how we maintained an even keel despite being down for most of the series and simply played our game until the end.”

In the first game, the Chargers found themselves down 7-3 after seven innings of play. 

The Chargers got two runs back in the eighth inning on doubles from sophomores Jake Figman and Billy Porotzky, and a single from junior Aaron Jasiak.

Junior Rocco Tenuta started the ninth inning with a double. After a strikeout and a walk, Figman tied the game with a two-run double. The Chargers took the lead for good when sophomore Logan Dichler hit a two-run double of his own.

A single by Jasiak and a double by sophomore Gaard Swenson capped off the 11-7 win for the Chargers.

“We have been putting together a lot of good at-bats, which leads to us stringing hits together and having big innings,” Figman said. “We have had a lot of hard-hit balls, some of which have been caught, but with all these hard hits they stack together and lead to us scoring often and in big chunks.” 

The Chargers were tied 3-3 after eight innings in the second game, but RBI singles from Tenuta, freshman Ryan Wiehe, and freshman Drew Law resulted in a four-run ninth inning and a 7-3 win.

“After coming from behind in two of the games, we learned that every person on the roster is capable of delivering a clutch hit when we need it most,” Vessella said. “Seeing how this team rallied around each other in the close ball games shows us that we can handle any situation that we come up against.”

The Chargers couldn’t complete the sweep in the third game and took a 9-4 loss.

“Our offense went really well this series,” Swenson said. “Our defense continued to play error-free for the most part and make the routine plays, along with the difficult ones. Our pitchers struggled a little bit to find the zone in the last game, but the team isn’t overly worried about it. Once we make that adjustment for the next series, we will be very difficult to beat.”

The Chargers will play their next series against Grand Valley State University Feb. 27-March 1 in Marion, Illinois.