GAFFNEY, S.C. — The SVSU Baseball team pushed their winning streak to seven with a doubleheader victory over the Limestone Saints Wednesday (Mar. 7) afternoon. The Cardinals took game one 17-7 followed by an 18-15 victory in game two.
Game One: SVSU 17 - LC 7
Limestone opened up the doubleheader going up 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning of play. Saginaw Valley's Quincy Jones responded quickly with a two-run homer in the top of the second to go up 2-1 over the Saints.
The Cardinals have found success in the third inning - Over the past four games, the team has notched 10 runs, and today was no exception.
To start off the scoring in the third, Adam Fitzgibbon singled through the left side, bringing Adam Turner around the plate to go up 3-1 over the Saints.
Jordan Swiss was due up next, sending his first homer of the year over the left center wall to go up 6-1, 3 RBI, over Limestone College.
The team was not finished yet; Griffin Green went on to put up a sac fly with bases loaded, RBI, sending Jones headed home to go up 7-1.
Saginaw Valley finished scoring for the third with a single from Derrek Clyde throught the left side, RBI, with Schwellenbach scoring. The Cardinals headed into the bottom of the third leading 8-1. Back to back doubles from Limestone cuts the Cardinals lead to 8-4 in the conclusion of the third.
In the top of the fourth, Swiss homered for the second time during this contest, to go up 9-4 over the Saints. Saginaw Valley added another run on a fielder's choice to finish the fourth up 10-4. Limestone put two in the bottom of the fourth to trail Saginaw Valley State 10-6.
Fitzgibbon takes the top of the fifth by storm, adding his first homer of the season, 3 RBI, to go up 13-6 over the Saints.
One run from Swiss's single kept the streak of scoring every inning since the second alive for the Cardinals, going up 14-6 at the end of the sixth.
SVSU finished off by adding two more runs to finish their count at 17 runs off of 21 hits.
Limestone tried to comeback with a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, but it would end up to be the final score of the afternoon. Saginaw Valley State went on to win the contest, 17-6, their highest scoring game of 2018.
Game Two
The Cardinals kept the runs coming in the second game, scoring five in the first inning of play. The Saints responded with three runs of their own.
The second and third inning was quiet for SVSU, but the two homers from Limestone put them up 6-5 heading into the fourth.
SVSU quickly took the lead back into their hands with Fitzgibbon tripling to right center, bringing Winters and Clyde home, taking back the lead 7-6 over the Saints. Swiss then singled through the left side sending Fitzgibbon around the plate, followed by Jones RBI single.
Schwellenbach ended the inning with a two run homer to push the lead to 11-6.
Limestone's three run homer shortens the SVSU lead to two, 11-9, heading into the fifth inning of play.
The sixth inning was full of hits and homers for both teams. In the top of the sixth, Cole Brooks homered to right field, 3 RBI. Dean Marais then singled to right center, advanced to second on the throw, RBI as Todd Paperd scored. The Cardinals led 15-9 before back to back homers from the Saints that tied the score 15-15.
In the final inning of play, SVSU's Jones singled to center field, advanced to second on the throw, 2 RBI, Swiss scored and Fitzgibbon scored, going up 17-15 over Limestone.
The final run of the game came from Schwellenbach who singled through the right side, sending Jones around the plate to finalize the count at 18-15, with Saginaw Valley taking the victory and extending their winning streak to seven.
Jacob Crossan (W, 1-0) got his first win of season, pitching one inning with one strikeout. Swiss got his second save of the season, pitching the final inning with one walk and one strikeout.
From head coach Chris Ebright
"Today was a huge gut check for us...we could have easily folded and instead we responded every single time they took one from us. I can't say enough about how pleased I am with the way we battled, it shows a lot about this team make up."
From pitching coach Clay VanderLaan
"The staff had an interesting, but productive learning experience today. They were thrown into some adversity with the winds carrying the ball like it did, and combine that with the extremely tough lineup that Limestone has it equates to a tough situation. But they answered when we needed them to and gave us an opportunity to win two ball games, and that's all I can ask from them."
Up Next...
The Cardinals will continue on the road to play Claflin tomorrow (Mar. 8) afternoon at 3 p.m. There is no live stats or video for this event, so stay tuned for recap on svsucardinals.com, or on the twitter accounts, @SVSUAthletics and @SVSUBaseball.
@SVSUBaseball | #svsubsb | @SVSUAthletics | #GoSVSU
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