The Hillsdale College baseball team became the first G-MAC squad this season to split a series with G-MAC leader Northwood on Saturday, thanks to a dominant outing from Jacob Pallo on the mound.

Hillsdale took a 1-0 victory over Northwood in the opener on Saturday behind a complete game one-hitter from Pallo, as the sophomore fanned four in seven innings and worked around five walks to earn his third win of the season in a game that took just an hour and thirty minutes to play.

Pallo issued three of his five walks in the first inning, loading the bases before getting an inning-ending ground out. From there, it was relatively smooth sailing for the sophomore, who allowed a runner to reach second base in just two of the final six innings and didn't allow a Northwood player to reach third. Hillsdale's defense backed Pallo up with an error-free performance and a timely double play to end a threat in the top of the fourth.

Hillsdale managed just four hits in the game but strung together back to back singles by Gaard Swenson and Rocco Tenuta in the bottom of the third, and took advantage of an error by Northwood to get Swenson to third where Zak Kent drove him in for the game's only run on a sacrifice fly. 

Augie Hutchison and Will Millard each added a single as well for the Chargers at the plate in the victory.

Hillsdale went into the nightcap looking to take the victory, but four costly errors led to three unearned runs by the Timberwolves to pull away in a 6-2 Northwood victory.

Trailing 5-0 after six innings, Hillsdale made a late charge, with Will Lehman hitting a RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to get the Chargers on the board. Hillsdale cut Northwood's lead to 6-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on a Northwood error in left field that allowed Tenuta to score, and had two runners on base and the potential tying run in the on deck circle but couldn't keep the rally going.

Tenuta went 2 for 4 at the plate with a double  and Gaard Swenson and John Hunter each added two hits as well for the Chargers, who pounded out 10 hits but stranded 13 baserunners in the loss.

The two wins this weekend were big ones for Hillsdale, who improve to 21-20 overall and, at 14-10 in conference play, remain in third place in the G-MAC North Division and in the overall G-MAC standings. The Chargers will head to Tiffin next weekend with a chance to potentially lock up a spot in the G-MAC Tournament with a sweep, but first will play a mid-week contest against the 17th-ranked team in the nation, GLIAC leader Davenport, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Caledonia, Michigan.

Photo by Steve George