The Hillsdale College baseball team battled the top team in the G-MAC standings, Findlay, in a competitive home doubleheader on Monday afternoon.

In the end, however, the Chargers couldn't quite cash in their chances at critical times in 6-4 and 4-3 losses that allowed the Oilers to escape Hillsdale with a series win.

In the opener, Findlay surged out to a 5-0 lead early, plating three runs in the second inning and two in the third. 

The Chargers staged a great rally in the bottom of the third, scoring four runs to cut the deficit to 5-4. Billy Porotsky led off with a walk, Aaron Jasiak hit a double to get both runners in scoring position, and Gaard Swenson drove them home with a two-run single to start the scoring.

Swenson later scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Wiehe and Tyler Sowers added a RBI single to cut the deficit to one run, but Findlay got out of the inning with the lead intact, and held on the rest of the way, with the help of an insurance run in the fifth inning. 

Hillsdale twice got a runner in scoring position with two outs, in both the fifth and seventh innings, but was unable to get them home in a 6-4 defeat.

The Chargers managed just one hit outside of that third inning rally, another single by Gaard Swenson, who went 2 for 3 in the contest and added a stolen base to lead Hillsdale at the plate.

Patrick MacLean (2-2) took the loss for Hillsdale, going five innings with two strikeouts and four walks, while Brenden Smith pitched the final two innings for the Chargers with two strikeouts and no runs conceded.

The nightcap was a low-scoring battle, with Findlay taking an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a manufactured run, and adding a second in the fifth inning to take a 2-0 advantage.

Hillsdale got a baserunner in five of the first seven innings but didn't break through offensively until the bottom of the eighth. Swenson led off the inning with a double and scored on another double by Will Lehman to cut the deficit to 2-1. 

That gave the Chargers hope entering the ninth trailing by just a run, but Findlay seized momentum back with a two-run home run in the top of the ninth to go up 4-1 and leave Hillsdale with just three outs to try and make a comeback.

The Chargers very nearly did. Nolan Coppens walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth for Hillsdale, and Jake Figman got two runners in scoring position for the Chargers with a double to left field.

Coppens would score on a wild pitch and Figman got home on a groundout by Aaron Jasiak to cut the deficit to 4-3, but Hillsdale ran out of outs to make a comeback with, striking out in the final at-bat of the game.

Figman was 2 for 4 with a double to lead the Chargers at the plate, while Logan McLaughlin (2-3) took a tough loss for the Chargers despite a strong outing, going six and one-third innings with just one earned run conceded. Winston Delp pitched the final two and two-thirds innings for Hillsdale.

Hillsdale is now 18-22 overall, 12-12 in G-MAC play, and faces a critical week with two series left in the season. The Chargers make a trip to Detroit tomorrow to face Wayne State in a midweek contest at 2 p.m., and a return game of an 11-10 Hillsdale win over the Warriors last week, before hosting Tiffin in a four-game set for the final home games of the 2026 season at Lenda and Glenda Hill Stadium and TFO Partners Field.

The Chargers are tied for sixth in the race for the G-MAC Tournament, two games ahead of eighth place Cedarville and three ahead of the ninth-place Dragons for one of the final spots in the Tourney. Hillsdale has a chance to lock up a tourney bid by taking care of Tiffin, but could find themselves in jeopardy of making the tournament if the Dragons take the series.