LEBANON, Ill. - McKendree University baseball (4-7) split its weekend series, 2-2, with Hillsdale on Saturday afternoon after capturing the win, 9-5, in game one of the double-header before dropping the second, 21-6. McKendree heads off to Illinois Springfield on March 11-13 for a non-conference three-game series against the Great Lakes Valley Conference-foe.

GAME 1
McKendree went down early in the opening game of the double-header after it gave up a pair of runs to the visiting-Chargers in the top of the first. The Bearcats fought back quickly in their own half inning with a left field homer by freshman Gavin Arseneau, making the deficit just one run (2-1) for McKendree. The Bearcats continued the offensive in the third inning behind a score from senior Corey Price on an unearned run before Joseph Copeland blasted another homerun, putting McKendree up, 4-2. The fourth inning made the same returns for the Bearcats with another homerun, this time from Price, which also pushed sophomore catcher Tommy Mohan home and made the lead 6-2. Copeland again added to the lead for the Bearcats, 7-2, in the fifth behind his second homer of the contest, blasting it into right.

Hillsdale added one back in its sixth-inning efforts, making the ball game 7-3 but the Bearcats came back again in the bottom half with a bomb from redshirt junior catcher Austin Francis. Francis drove in Steinbach in the process, pushing the hosting-Bearcats' lead to 9-3. Hillsdale added a pair during a last-inning comeback attempt in the top of the seventh but it fell short.

Junior pitcher Mac Grant (1-0) earned his first victory of the season behind a six-inning effort.

GAME 2
McKendree struggled to contain the Chargers' offense in the second game of the day which featured eight runs by the visitor over the first two innings. McKendree brought a few runs in during its second and third innings, which cut the lead to 8-3. In the fourth, the Bearcats looked to be making a comeback with two more runs, making the game 9-6 but the Chargers' offense continued dominating. Hillsdale fired off 12 runs in the last three innings while it prevented any further scoring from the hosting-Bearcats. Hillsdale prevented the series loss to McKendree with  a 21-6 final.