Charger baseball team picks up win amidst controversy

Sometimes the saying "home sweet home" just isn't applicable — just ask the Hillsdale College baseball team right now. Mired in a messy prank-gone-wrong/ battle with the student newspaper the Chargers played maybe their finest game of the season so far on Friday, in a 6-1 road win at Findlay. It stopped the bleeding in several ways, no pun intended, plus being on the road gave the players and coaches plenty of defense in answering the question of why they won't make a public comment of any sort to the media.

In related news, the Hillsdale High School baseball team actually practiced at the Chargers' home diamond yesterday due to flooding on their own baseball field, caused by some blockage in the creek by Hillsdale High School. Hornet head coach Chris Adams probably didn't realize he should've yelled "EARMUFFS!" to his kids when the Hornets decided to practice at the college, but in hindsight he should have.

One of the Hornet players said several cars went by the field with plenty of derogatory comments, many of them beginning with the letter F, and ending with the letter U. Apparently high school athletes and the college team look similar from a distance. Maybe next time the Hornet practice there they can erect a huge sign, letting people know who's on the diamond, or hire an airplane advertisement to fly overhead. Either way it is apparent the healing is far from complete on the campus.

Anyways, back to the positive, for now — here's a recap of the Chargers' win on Friday from the college Web site:

After a week surrounded by controversey, the Hillsdale College baseball team put together one of its most complete games of the season in a 6-1 victory over the University of Findlay Friday afternoon.

The game lasted just six innings because of rain that lasted all day in the Findlay area.

The teams are still scheduled to play Saturday afternoon in Findlay starting at 1 p.m.

The win puts Hillsdale at 9-18 overall and 2-12 in the GLIAC. The Chargers had lost 14 of their last 15 before Friday's decisive victory.

Senior pitcher Scott Monterastelli pitched an outstanding game, going all six innings while allowing just two hits and two walks to go along with four strikeouts. He was also the winning pitcher in Hillsdale's other conference win, 10-4 over Northwood on March 27.

Hillsdale broke open a scoreless game with three runs in the top of the third inning. Clay Stephens hit a two-out, two-run single that scored John Bonvillian and Mike D'Agnese with the game's first two runs. Stephens later scored on a single by Pat Krebs to put the Chargers up 3-0.

Bonvillian, who has flourished as the team's leadoff hitter in the past week, drove in two runs with a single in the top of the sixth, scoring D'Agnese and Anthony Giarmo.

Bonvillian was 2-for-4 in the game, while Stephens went 3-for-3 in his best offensive performance of the season. Adam Connell scored two runs for Hillsdale.