DETROIT – The Saginaw Valley State University softball team swept Wayne State to win its fourth straight game in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) competition and seven of its last eight. The Cardinals (23-7, 7-1 GLIAC) won game one 8-4 in extra innings before ending the doubleheader with a 9-6 outcome in the second game.
Sarah Gersch (3-7) and Alexis Gills (3-8) both led the way offensively with three hits on the afternoon. Gersch added five stolen bases to her career-leading total. Katelyn Pnacek (2-5) registered four RBI while Paige Kolinski (1-4) contributed three RBI. Jackie Popko (2-3), Maddie Campagna (2-7), and Sara Moos (2-8) recorded two hits in the 2-0 outing.
Game 1: Saginaw Valley State def. Wayne State, 8-4 (8 innings)
The Cardinals broke the tie with an RBI double in the top of the 4th-inning when Sydney Herioux belted a ball to left center to score Olivia Sabin.
Moos added an insurance run with a single to center field that brought Gersch across the plate in the fifth. Wayne State added two runs in the bottom half of the inning to knot things up at two runs. They took the lead with a two-run homer to left field the following inning.
A dropped fly ball to right field allowed Campagna and Moos to tie up the tally in the top of the 7th-inning to force extra innings.
Popko singled to start the eighth and Pnacek doubled to left center to bring her home for a 5-4 advantage. Kolinski homered to right center to score Gersch and Emily Beckas for what would end up being the final score of 8-4.
Reigning GLIAC softball pitcher of the week Emily Depew (W, 8-3) won her fourth game in the last five with another complete game on the season. Depew struck out five batters and allowed just two earned runs in eight innings of work.
Game 2: Saginaw Valley State def. Wayne State, 9-6
Kolinski got things going in the first inning with a home run to right center that scored Popko for a 2-0 lead.
Pnacek doubled right field to score Popko, Herioux, and Campagna to increase the lead to five. A two-RBI single up the middle in the bottom portion of the inning cut the deficit to three runs.
Gills scored a run in the third on a fly-out to extend the lead to 6-2. Another run was put up by the Warriors to half the lead in the bottom of the third.
The teams traded runs in the fifth to keep the gap the same at 7-4. Gills singled through the left side to score Gersch for the SVSU run.
A throwing error in the sixth spotted the Cardinals another run, but Wayne State tallied two in its half-of-inning offense to come within two runs of the lead.
A bases-loaded walk put one final run on the board for SVSU before the defense was able to get the three outs in the bottom of the seventh to seal the victory.
Jaclyn Groves (W, 5-2) got the win with four innings of work as she allowed three hits, two earned runs, and struck out two. Margo van Eijl pitched three innings in relief and gave up no runs while sitting down two hitters.
UP NEXT
The SVSU softball team will host its first home doubleheader against Grand Valley State University tomorrow (April 8). The first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The Cardinals and the Lakers are the top two teams in the GLIAC standings.