Hillsdale College Baseball Week 9: Conference Play Begins

After 14 games so far in the spring, we were ready to get into our conference schedule and begin our road to the playoffs. We play in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) which is an NCAA Division II conference composed of teams in Michigan and Ohio.

Our first game in the conference schedule was against Grand Valley State University which is located in Allendale, Mich. The game was originally scheduled to be played on their field on Wednesday, but the harsh winter we had in Michigan this year has caused us to make some location and schedule changes. We were also slated to host them the following week.

Grand Valley’s field, which is a natural surface, was not ready for us to play on. We had to relocate the game to Adrian College in Adrian, Mich. which is about a half hour from our campus. Because the new location was closer to us we became the home team and when we play them next week we will be the away team. The game also had to be moved from Wednesday to Thursday because Adrian’s field was not available on Wednesday. As players we have to just roll with all the changes to the schedule and just be ready to play. We cannot control the weather or where the game is played all the time so the best thing to do is learn to adjust.

Going into the game Grand Valley was ranked #12 in the country and we knew with the way we ended our Florida trip it was going to be a good, close game. The temperature at game time was hovering around 34 degrees but at least there was no snow falling. I started the game on the mound and got myself into some stressful situations. In the second and third innings Grand Valley loaded the bases with two out hits but the defense played great behind me and kept them from scoring. I came out after the sixth inning with the score tied at zero. Grand Valley took a 1-0 lead in the seventh and then we gave them three runs on errors and free bases and they went on to win 4-0.

After Thursday’s game we hit the road for a three game series against Walsh University in Canton, Ohio. Walsh is a solid team that we have had success against in the past. Last year we swept them to finish the season and we were looking to do the same to start the conference season with a winning record. We played two seven inning games on Saturday and a nine inning game on Sunday.

Saturday was one of the first times all year that everyone on the team was into every pitch whether they were playing or not. Everybody was up and cheering after every pitch and it was awesome to be a part of. In the first game our senior pitcher Matt Reck threw a complete game shutout to even our conference record at 1-1. Behind Reck we played practically perfect defense and our offense was on fire, posting up 11 hits and seven runs. Sophomores Luke Ortel and Lincoln Reed combined for six of our 11 hits.

In game two we started freshman RHP Jake Lee who dominated for our second complete game of the day. He only gave up one hit, which came from a debatable call from the field umpire, and we played errorless defense behind him to get the win. We won by a score of 1-0, junior Nolan Breymaier singled home sophomore Tad Sobieszczanski for the run.

The wins on Saturday were huge for us and got us off to a winning record in the GLIAC. To complete our sweep of the series we would have to beat Walsh for a third time on Sunday. It was our coldest game of the year so far with temperatures in the mid to high 20’s to start the game. We jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning and everyone was into every pitch again like we were for the two wins on Saturday. Walsh made a game of it and tied it up with four runs of their own in the fifth inning. We regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth with a run and that would be all we needed. Our bullpen shut out Walsh for the rest of the game and we completed the sweep. Sophomore Connor Bartlett, sophomore Luke Ortel, and junior Vinny Delicata each had two hits in the win.

It was huge for us to get this sweep and get a strong start in conference play. We continue our conference schedule when we take on Grand Valley again on Wednesday.