5-0 game one 11-4 game two
HAMBURG, NY – After opening the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference portion of the schedule with a 5-0 loss to Mount Aloysius, the Hilbert College baseball team rebounded in a big way in their 11-4 night-cap victory, which evened their AMCC record at 1-1. Senior Chris Hoak personally finished with 5 RBIs in the third inning giving senior pitcher Nick Sherman some breathing room.
After a 30-minute break following the first game, Hilbert and Mount Aloysius played to thee innings of scoreless baseball before the explosion of runs occurred. The Hawks jumped on every pitch thrown by Derick Capiak in the bottom of the 3rd and erupted with 10 runs total. The scoring started when Ryan Ilardi crossed home off a Hoak RBI. Then, after Hoak stole second, he was knocked in by John Babocsi’s single to the left field. Two Mountie errors placed runners on base, and pushed them around scoring a third run. Matt Militello’s single RBI sent Derek Mort home before Ilardi’s single to right field sent Chris Parrott back to the bench. By this point, bases had been loaded, and were still loaded when Hoak hit his grand slam over the fence, with the ball bouncing just under the score board.
Neither team put any runs on the board in the 4th but MAC earned their first run of the day off Sherman in the top of the 5th and finished their scoring in the sixth inning (3 runs). The game ended in the middle of the 7th with the Hawks 11-4 victory.
Hoak finished the game going 2 for 3 with 5 RBIs and scoring 2 runs along with some great short stop throws to a stretching Frank Mancuso at first during the second game of the day. Sherman earned the win going the full distance with eight strike-outs without any walks.
Garrett Pauly held the mound and kept the game close through six innings in the first game of the double header for Hilbert. Mount Aloysius scored runs in the top of the second and fifth innings and headed into the top of the seventh with a 2-0 lead. But Hilbert gave up three runs (two hits and two errors) to find themselves down 5-0 with their last at-bats. Mount Aloysius’ Mike Godissart pitched the full game and gave up only two hits to the Hawks in their first AMCC contest.
Up next for Hilbert is another AMCC contest against Penn State Behrend March 28 with a 1 pm doubleheader start in Hamburg.