Lansing, Mich. – Saginaw Valley State University Cardinal baseball had a win or go home situation against the top seed in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) tournament, Wayne State University. After holding a 1-0 lead for most of the game, the Warriors (40-10) walked off the Cardinals (27-24) at Jackson Field on Friday in Lansing, Michigan 2-1.
An excellent performance all around by Saginaw Valley became a heart-breaking loss after starter Hunter Merillat (6-1) went six and a third innings with one run on five hits and nine strikeouts. Jackson Decker pitched two thirds of an inning with a strikeout in the seventh before giving way to Nolan Knauf (L, 0-1) who allowed one unearned run in an inning and a third.
Offensively, Reed Raymond and Brandon Scheurer had two hits each, four of the six Cardinal hits in the game. Raymond had five total bases with a double and a triple and the lone run scored. In the second, Raymond tripled to the right field corner as he took advantage of the tall, angled wall that gave off a friendly bounce. It didn't take long to score him as Jeffery Reseigh drove him in on a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat.
With a 1-0 lead, the game swung back and forth with scoring chances. In the fourth, the Warriors got a walk and a wild pitch to put the tying run at second with two outs. A bouncing ball up the middle was kept from leaking into centerfield by Tucker Roe and with a heads-up play, he cut the runner down at home to end the frame.
Wayne State added more pressure in the seventh. Back-to-back singles put two on with no outs, but the Cardinals got a foul out and a fly out before a pair of wild pitches scored the tying run. Saginaw Valley threatened in the ninth. Raymond doubled after a line out to start the inning. Reseigh looked to score him again, but slashed one to right that was caught on a slide by the Warrior right fielder. A ground out following stranded the go-ahead run at second.
The bottom of the ninth is when the Warriors felt the most momentum of the afternoon. A walk, a sacrifice bunt, and then an error put runners at the corners with one out. An intentional walk loaded the bases trying to play for a force at home, but a walk to the next batter ended the game as Wayne State won 2-1.
SEASON RECAP
The Cardinals had one of their best seasons in the last 15 years. Two one-run losses in the GLIAC tournament ended a rollercoaster weekend. SVSU had two First Team All-GLIAC players in Roe and Tyler McLaren, three Second Team All-GLIAC in Colin Cornwell, Raymond, and Merillat, and two Honorable Mention All-GLIAC with Austin Schweiger and Jaccar Watkins. The team set the single season record in strikeouts with 392 and triples with 22 and Watkins set the single season record for triples with eight.
