Baseball | 4/22/2025 9:16:00 AM

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport baseball team will be hosting Hillsdale College (21-20) in their home finale on Tuesday night beginning at 6:00 PM. The non-conference game is still an important one in terms of Davenport trying to get another in-region win and bolster their resume for the upcoming first release of the NCAA regional rankings. The Panthers have the toughest schedule to date in NCAA Division II and still have a 29-11 overall record with nine games remaining in the regular season. DU's opponents thus far have a .661 win percentage. The schedule on paper gets easier as their future opponents have a .380 win percentage in Hillsdale, Wayne State, and Roosevelt.

Hillsdale is currently third in the G-MAC North Division standings with a record of 14-10. They trail Ashland (19-5) and Northwood (21-3), whom the Panthers have a 5-0 record against this season. The Chargers are coming off a series against division-leading Northwood in which they split the series at two games apiece. The Timberwolves won 5-0 in game one on Friday and the Chargers took game two by a final of 6-1. On Saturday, Hillsdale took game one 1-0 before falling in game two by a final of 6-2. Gibson Cary went all seven innings in the game two win on Friday. He allowed just three hits and one unearned run with two walks and two strikeouts. Will Lehman and Will Millard each homered in the victory. Rocco Tenuta went 2-for-2 with a run and sacrifice fly. Aaron Jasiak went 2-for-2 with a walk, RBI, and two runs scored in the ninth spot of the lineup. Jacob Pallo tossed a complete-game, seven-inning gem in the game one win on Saturday. He allowed one hit in the shutout with five walks and four strikeouts. Hillsdale had four hits and Zak Kent's sacrifice fly in the third inning was all the scoring needed. Kent leads the team with a .352 batting average (51-145) in 39 games played. He has 33 runs scored, 10 doubles, three triples, six home runs, and 42 RBI. Hillsdale is batting .278 as a team this season with 70 doubles, 17 triples, and 24 home runs. Daniel Higdon (4-2) has a 3.29 ERA on the mound in 54.2 innings covering 10 starts. He was allowed 38 walks and struck out 38 batters.

Davenport is coming off a four-game sweep of Saginaw Valley State over the weekend. DU continues to hit as a team with a .331 batting average against the Cardinals. They outscored SVSU, 38-15, over the weekend and are still going strong at the top of the GLIAC standings at 15-1. Since a four-game sweep at the hands of Lewis, the Panthers have won eight straight games against Division II opponents. Xander Reisbig was named GLIAC Player of the Week as he hit .500 (8-16) against the Cardinals with five runs scored and five RBI. He collected two doubles and reached base at a 52.9 percent clip. He also had 12 putouts in the field. Logan Todd also had a great series batting in the ninth spot of the lineup. He went 5-for-12 (.417) with two runs scored, two doubles, and three RBI. Dylan Pawenski hit a grand slam on Thursday in the 14-6 win and finished the series with six RBI. Coltrane Rubner also drove in six runs and hit a two-run homer in game one on Friday in the first inning. The pitching staff was solid holding the Cardinals to a .254 batting average. They had a 3.71 ERA in 34 innings with 36 strikeouts against just 13 walks. Brandon Skorupski was stellar out of the bullpen in Friday's game one win. He tossed 3.2 innings and allowed no runs on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts for his third win of the season. Keegan Batka got his seventh win of the season on Thursday in 6.1 innings of work. He struck out nine and has fanned 20 in his last two starts.

Davenport leads the all-time series by a 10-4 margin. The first contest was Mar. 27, 2018 with DU winning 23-12 at The Farm in Caledonia. The Panthers won the first seven matchups in the series before the Chargers got their first win on Feb. 11, 2022 in Hoover, Alabama (15-14) in 10 innings. Hillsdale has a 4-3 record in the last seven meetings. The Panthers took the last game played on Apr. 16, 2024 in Hillsdale (10-5). Michael Tchavdarov went 2-for-4 with a double, walk, three runs scored, and two RBI in the leadoff spot. Anthony Aloisio hit a three-run shot in the first inning as part of a nine-run opening inning. Rubner walked three times and scored a run.

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