LEBANON, Ill. - McKendree University baseball (3-6) split its first home pair of games of the spring with a home-opening 6-5 victory over Hillsdale (5-7) but subsequently dropped game two of the double-header 12-7 in 11 innings to the Chargers. The Bearcats will look to take the series during the double-header on March 5 against the Chargers.
Game 1
The home-opener featured the Bearcats' offense firing on all cylinders quickly, going up 1-0 in the second before adding four more in the third inning to own a 5-0 lead against the visiting-Chargers. The second inning run was scored by senior outfielder
Corey Price, who reached on a lead-off double before scoring on a fielder's choice.
The third inning began with another double, this time by graduate senior
Mason Hale, which paved the way for a homerun from graduate senior
Peyton Dillingham, pushing the score to 3-0 in favor of McKendree. Following the bomb from Dillingham, freshman
Gavin Arseneau reached on a walk, opening the door for more offense from the Bearcats. Senior
Alex Steinbach took advantage of the runner on base and blasted a shot to left center to move the score to 5-0.
Hillsdale made a comeback with three runs in the top of the fourth inning and a fourth run in the top of the fifth, making it 5-4, McKendree. The Chargers continued adding runs with one more to tie the game in the top of the seventh, forcing the Bearcat offense to work, once again.
The walk-off score came from Arseneau, who originally reached on a single to left, after he was advanced to second by Steinbach before Price pushed him home with a single to left center. The win opened Hypes Field in 2022 with a 6-5 game in favor of the Bearcats.
Sophomore
Mark Branz (1-0) collected the win behind 2.0 innings pitched with one hit allowed and one earned run, tacking on three strikeouts. Junior
Garrett Herring started the outing with 5.0 innings tossed, collecting four earned runs with five strikeouts.
Game 2
McKendree's offense continued streaking into the second game with the Bearcats collecting four runs in the first inning to go up 4-0 on the Chargers. The inning began behind a single by both Arseneau and Steinbach, which placed runners on first and second, setting up the lead. Price followed the pair of singles with one of his own down the left field line, pushing Steinbach to second and Arseneau past home. Senior
Ryan Hutchinson hammered a fourth-straight single, which got Steinbach home, Price to third, and made the lead 2-0. Price scored on a thorwing error when Hutchinson stole second while Hutchinson made it to home on a ground out in the next at-bat.
In the bottom of the second, Dillingham showed his bat was still hot with another homerun to left field, making the Bearcats' lead 5-0.
Hillsdale cut deep into the Bearcats' lead with a four-run third inning, which featured a duo of homeruns, leaving the lead at one run, 5-4. McKendree tacked on an insurance run with a homer from redshirt junior
Austin Francis to left field. The Chargers added their fifth run in the fifth inning and took the lead, 7-6, in the seventh inning. McKendree tied it up in the bottom of the seventh with homer by Areseneau, 7-7.
The game entered extra innings with a null 10th before Hillsdale fired off five runs in the top of the 11th, leaving the Bearcats with a sizeable hole in the bottom of the inning.
Hillsdale held its lead to take game two of the four-game series, 12-7. The Bearcats used a quadruplet of hurlers, with Millsap kicking it off with 3.0 innings (4 ER), Spears tossing 4.0 (3 ER), Yancik throwing 3.2 and Valladingham with 0.1. Yancik took the loss (1-1) in the second game of the weekend.
UP NEXT
McKendree will be back at Hypes Field with another double-header at 11 A.M. and 2 P.M. on Saturday, March 5, against the Chargers of Hillsdale College.
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