After one of the wettest and wildest Championship Saturdays in the history of the G-MAC Softball Tournament, the Hillsdale College softball team is bringing home a title.
As both teams fought the elements in a rainy Saturday contest, second-seeded Hillsdale, undefeated through the winner's bracket and needing just one win to clinch the tournament crown, built a massive lead on top-seeded Tiffin, who had fought their way back through the winner's bracket and needed to built Hillsdale twice to claim the title. The Chargers led 10-0 after two innings and held an 11-4 lead with two outs in the top of the fifth.
But the rain that had begun in the morning before the start of the game never ceased, and steadily picked up intensity throughout the contest. By the fifth inning, conditions had deteriorated to the point where the umpires had no choice but to pause the game, one out short of the five complete innings that would have made the contest official.
With the forecast showing no break in the rain that was pounding the stadium for the rest of Saturday, and with tomorrow's forecast providing no relief with more wall-to-wall rain called for and the potential for thunderstorms as well, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference was left with no good options to restart play, finish the contest and complete the tournament by the NCAA's Sunday evening deadline for regional qualification. The G-MAC declared the remainder of the 2025 Tournament cancelled due to weather. Officially, Saturday's game was declared a no contest because it did not reach the innings threshold for a complete game. With the tournament unable to be finished, the title was awarded by G-MAC bylaw to the highest-seeded team that was still undefeated in the tournament, giving Hillsdale the G-MAC Tourney crown for the second time in three seasons and the fourth time overall in program history.
Although the Chargers didn't officially win the title on the field, the performance Hillsdale put on in the innings that were able to be played was good enough to be title-worthy. The Chargers plated five runs in the bottom of the first inning to seize control, as Hillsdale's first six batters all reached base, starting with a leadoff single by
Emma Sather.
Maggie Olaveson drove in Sather on a bases-loaded hit by pitch, and
Taylor Lewis scored on a wild pitch in the next at bat to put Hillsdale up 2-0.
That brought the hero of Friday's contest,
Hannah Hoverman, to the plate, and the senior delivered once again, with a triple to right field that scored two more runs.
Anna Chellman followed up Hoverman's triple with a RBI single scoring Hoverman to give Hillsdale a 5-0 lead.
The Chargers didn't let up in the bottom of the second, as Olaveson blasted a three-run home run over the left field fence and
Sydney Davis added a two-run double to give Hillsdale a 10-0 edge.
Although facing a massive deficit, Tiffin cut into the deficit with two runs each in the third and fourth innings to get the game back under the run-rule threshold and stay alive. Hillsdale pushed its lead back to seven runs in the bottom of the fourth, as
Hannah Hoverman's leadoff double allowed Davis to drive her home on a sacrifice fly to make it 11-4 Hillsdale. Unfortunately, by that point the weather had taken a turn for the worse and not long after, in the top of the fifth, the game was halted for good.
Today's fourth G-MAC Tourney title ties Hillsdale with former G-MAC member Trevecca Nazarene for the most in conference history, and also gives Hillsdale the automatic bid to the NCAA DII Midwest Regional next week. At 36-16, the Chargers look likely to grab a top four seed in the Midwest Regional, which would be the highest in Hillsdale's NCAA Tournament history. Hillsdale will be making its sixth NCAA DII Tournament appearance, and its fifth NCAA appearance in eight seasons, including the program's fourth under
Kyle Gross. The selection show, where the Chargers will find out their destination and opponent in next week's regional, will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday at ncaa.com.
Photo Courtesy of the G-MAC
