CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Lee University baseball team defeated Hillsdale College 10-0, 7-5 on Saturday afternoon at Larry Carpenter Stadium, completing a three-game sweep of the visiting Michigan team. The Flames improved to 5-2 with the wins and will travel to Young Harris College (Ga.) on Wednesday before opening GSC play with a three-game series at Delta State University on Friday and Saturday.
Game 1 – Lee 10, Hillsdale 0
Cooper Casteel was impressive in his second mound appearance. The lefty pitched five innings and allowed four hits, walked two and struck out four in picking up the pitching win. David White, Matthew Delph and Evan Bloomer also made mound appearances.
The Flames jumped on top 3-0 in the first inning. They added five more runs in the third and scored the final two runs in the fifth. All totaled, they had 12 hits and played errorless ball in the field. The Lee pitching gave up only four hits to Hillsdale. Augie Hutchison doubled in the loss.
Luke Collier continued his fine work at the plate. He was 2-of-4, including a double. The red-shirt sophomore collected three RBI and scored once. Freshman Ryan Valdez and Brock Sisson were 3-of-5. Valdez knocked in two runs and scored once while Sisson collected a RBI and tallied twice. JJ Williams doubled, stole two bases and scored two times. Levi Cloud had a triple, a single and a run scored. Isaiah French collected a RBI with a hit. Ashton Simmons stole a pair of bases and crossed home once.
Game 2 – Lee 7, Hillsdale 5
Dylan Van Meeteren evened his pitching record at 1-1 by hurling 4.2 innings in the nightcap. He allowed one hit, three earned runs, walked two and struck out four. Ty Cobb pitched 1.2 innings while Hunter Lane came on to get the save. He retired the final two outs of the game.
The Flames had eight hits in the victory. Cooper Doughman and French had a pair of hits each. Doughman collected two RBI while French posted a two-base hit, scored twice and had a RBI. Malachi Cloud doubled and scored while Levi Cloud had a hit and knocked in a run. Valdez joined in the action with a hit, RBI and a run scored. Luke Collier had Lee's other hit.
Lee was coasting to a 7-1 lead until the top of the fifth inning. Hillsdale loaded the bases and Zak Kent made it a 7-5 contest when he blasted a grand slam homerun. Gaard Swenson also tripled in the loss. All totaled, the visitors collected five hits off the three Lee pitchers. Jacob Pallo was the starting and losing Hillsdale hurler. He worked the first three innings. Logan McLaughlin came on to pitch the final two frames for the Michigan squad. He did not allow a hit and struck out three.
Coach Mark Brew's thoughts:
"We pitched much better this weekend. I was really proud of how our offense created runs through the running game. Our defense continues to be steady and we will need that moving forward. Anytime you sweep is always a good weekend, but we still have some things to learn with closing out games and finishing stronger."
