CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team, coming off a last inning defeat on Monday night at the hands of Oakland City, flipped the switch on Tuesday with a ninth inning comeback victory over Felician College, 9-8.
Trailing 8-4 heading into its last at-bats against the Golden Falcons, SVSU scored five runs in its half of the ninth inning to grab the 9-8 lead. A double play and groundout to the pitcher would seal the victory in the bottom of the ninth, as junior Jeff Schalk worked a solid ninth to record the save.
The Cardinals fell behind early in the contest, as a pair of walks and an error came back to haunt them with Felician plating two runs in the second and one in the third to take a 3-0 advantage.
Saginaw Valley's bats started cold, as the team had just one hit through the first five innings. The sticks came alive a bit in the sixth, however, as SV had three runs on as many hits, with the major blow coming on a three-RBI double from junior Brad Schalk that knotted the score at 3-3.
Felician would distance itself a bit in the seventh inning, scoring four runs with the major damage being done on a Scott De Jong three-run homerun to take a 7-3 lead.
SV used a pinch-hit RBI double by sophomore Luke Valutis in the top of the 8th to score junior Chris Perkovich, who reached on a single. That cut the deficit to 7-4.
The Golden Falcons would add another run in their half of the inning to make the score 8-4 heading into the last frame.
With the bases loaded and one out in the top of the 9th, Schalk scored on a wild pitch to make the score 8-5. Another wild pitch would score sophomore Niko Gonzalez to make the score 8-6.
Sophomore Richard Guglielmi would then hit a chopper to the third baseman, who tried to get Perkovich at second. The throw was late and the end result was guys on 1st and 2nd with one out, as the fielder's choice allowed sophomore Tyler Schwanz to score from third, cutting the deficit to 8-7.
That brought Valutis to the plate and he would deliver once more. He drilled another double to right center, scoring Perkovich and Guglielmi to grab the 9-8 lead for the Cards. That's where the score would stand heading into the bottom of the frame.
That set the stage for Schalk, as he shut-down Felician in the bottom of the ninth.
Freshman Shane Odzark worked an inning of relief to pick-up his first career victory.
Valutis finished 2-for-2 with three RBIs and Schalk had a hit, run scored, three walks and three RBIS. Senior Michael Craig was 2-for-4 as well with a run scored.
The victory improves SVSU to 2-3 overall on the season while Felician falls to 3-6 overall. Saginaw continues play tomorrow against Oakland City University (Ind.) in a 12:30 pm matchup. The two teams met Monday night, with the Mighty Oaks prevailing for a 16-14 victory in 10 innings.
