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Hilbert Baseball Goes 4-3 During South Carolina Trip

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The Hilbert College Baseball team traveled down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to compete in seven games over a six day stretch during spring break.

They earned a record of 4-3 while down south to bring their overall record to 5-6. Two Hawks, Brendan Walsh and Pat Whelan, earned athletic honors for their play in Myrtle Beach.

The spring trip was described as “an overall fun experience for both team bonding purposes and playing” by Walsh. The team played in competitive games and all players became closer to one another, he added.

On their first day, the Hawks saw an early morning double-header against Penn Tech College where they split the series by losing 4-2 in game one and winning game 2, 5-4.

In game one, Hilbert would only be able to plate across two runs. The first run was given in the top of the first inning after Derek Martinez reached base safely on an error that scored Whelan. The second run was earned in the fifth inning off of a double by Pat Whelan that scored Jairo Santos. Despite the strong outing by first-year pitcher, Andrew Cole, the Hawks were not able to generate enough runs to win game one. Cole threw 5.2 innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out two batters.

Game two saw a fast pace with little offense for either side. Penn Tech was able to score four runs in six innings, three of which unearned. The Hawks would not plate a run until the bottom of the sixth, when an RBI single off the bat of Manny McClain scored Derek Martinez. Hilbert would tie the game after back-to-back walks and a wild pitch scored three more runs. In the bottom of the seventh, senior Angelo DiNizo would double to left field, scoring Frank McCabe, allowing the Hawks to earn a walk-off win, 5-4.

Day two of competition was against Delaware Valley College, for a single 9-inning game. The Hawks struck early by scoring one run in the first inning and one run in the second inning. These runs came off the bat of a Thomas Evans double and a Griff McAndrews ground ball. Delaware Valley’s pitching silenced the hawks for the remaining seven innings while pushing across eight throughout the game, creating a final score of 8-2. Freshman Brendan Hediger had an impressive performance on the mound, throwing five innings, allowing one earned run, and striking out four.

The fourth game of the trip was a contest, under the lights, against Valley Forge University, which resulted in another walk-off win for the Hawks. Hilbert would take turns with the lead with Valley Forge until they claimed a 6-4 lead over the Hawks in the seventh inning. The Hawks would not respond until the bottom of the ninth when a Derek Martinez ground out made it 6-5. Jack Duffek was able to seal the game for Hilbert with a two RBI single to give the Hawks a 7-6 victory.

When asked about his big hit, Duffek described the at-bat as a great opportunity and the “kind of situation you dream of.”

“Down one, bases loaded, down to the final out.”

He kept his approach simple, saying to himself “take a deep breath, hit something hard.”

A deflating walk-off defeat for Hilbert against Clark Summit College would be overshadowed by a two-win day against Geneva College. The score of the double header would be 3-2 and 11-4. In game one, a Thomas Evans RBI, a John Riviere fielder’s choice, and a balk generated enough runs to defeat Geneva, given another strong outing from Cole. Cole held Geneva to one earned run over 5+ innings of work.

The second game against Geneva saw an offensive explosion for Hilbert. Ben Ratajczak, Evans, Whelan, Ben Chowaniec, and John Watson all recorded RBIs in the game. Whelan, Evans, and Santos also recorded extra-base hits. One of Whelan’s extra-base hits was a monster home run over the right field wall that gave the Hawks a 7-0 lead in the second inning. This game also saw another dominant outing from pitcher, Hediger, who threw six innings, allowing only one earned run.

For their actions over spring break, Walsh earned AMCC Pitcher of the Week while Whelan earned Hawk of the Week. Walsh appeared in two games, allowing no runs and only one base runner over five innings of work. He recorded two wins and a save while down south. Whelan posted a .444 batting average in Myrtle, while slugging .833. He also put together three multi-hit games over the week.

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Hawks Baseball Drops Thrillers in Season Opener

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The Hilbert College Baseball team opened their 2023 season with a double-header contest hosted by Chatham University Cougars just outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, dropping game one, 5-4, in a 12-inning thriller, and game two, 10-9.

Sophomore pitcher, Blaine Morgan, described the day as “an eventful day that was productive for the team because we were able to get our day one kinks out”. He followed that with saying “I am very excited to see where our team goes this season because we have a lot going for us and a high ceiling”.

The Hawks offense came out of the gate hot, with leadoff man Thomas Evans hitting a solo home run in the top of the first inning. Before the Chatham defense could get the first three outs, Patrick Whelan tripled and Jack Duffek drove in Whelan with a sacrifice fly ball to give Hilbert a 2-0 lead, early in the game.

The game would quiet down for the offense while Chatham was able to plate three runs to take the lead until a Derek Martinez single and a Alex Ellison sacrifice fly would score two runs to give the Hawks a 4-3 lead, going into the 7th inning. Chatham was able to squeeze the tying run across the plate in the final inning, which launched the game into extra innings.

Hilbert would not score a run for the remainder of the game while pitcher, Blaine Morgan would do his best to keep the Chatham bats silent. He was able to throw 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball until Chatham was able to win the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning.

The 12-inning opening matchup was ranked the third most exciting game of the week by 6-4-3 Charts, a data reporting service for college sports.

Game two started off in similar fashion, with the Hawks offense striking early. Hilbert was able to push across three runs in the top of the first, coming from a leadoff triple from John Riviere, who was batted in by a Thomas Evan triple. Evans scored off of a Whelan sac fly to make it 2-0 and Derek Martinez scored on a Manny McClain single, making it 3-0.

The Chatham Cougars would later plate a single run in the second inning and third inning making it a score of 3-2 before the Hawks would push across two more runs in the top of the fourth.

With the score at 5-2 going into the bottom of the 5th, the Cougars would find their big inning, scoring a hefty 5 runs, giving them a 7-5 lead. This came off of timely hits with runners in scoring position, from their high-producing, middle of the order hitters.

The hawks did not lose focus after the big inning because they immediately tied the game in the top of the 6th with another Evans homerun and Ben Ratajczak reaching on an error that scored Frank McCabe. The  Cougars would respond with three more runs in the bottom of the 6th, making it 10-7. The hawks would rally in the top of the 7th, pushing across two more runs, making it 10-9 but did not have enough to tie the game or take the lead.

When asked about his overall experience, senior Pitcher Zack Panfil said that the cold Pittsburg weather did not hinder the Hawks and it was a productive day, overall.

“Even though it was cold, we still wanted to go out and compete,” Panfil said. “The outcome was unfortunate but we learned what we need to work on and we know what we need to do next weekend in Philly.”

After the opening day sweep, the Hawks Baseball team looks to even out their record as they head to Philadelphia, PA to play the University of Valley Forge on Sunday, February 25th. The team was set to play Rosemont college on Saturday but due to cold weather conditions, the Saturday games were canceled.