TOWN AND COUNTRY, Miss. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program continued the spring trip with a 10-2 win against Maryville and a 6-3 loss against McKendree at Maryville University Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals (7-3) got a stellar pitching performance from Tyler McLaren in game one, but they couldn't mount the comeback in game two for the sweep.
Colin Cornwell went 4-for-8 over the two games with two doubles and scored two runs while driving in one. Brandon Scheurer went 3-for-8 collectively with two walks while driving in two and scoring two. Cardinal pitching got touched up for six runs in game two, but they struck out 14 batters over both games.
McLaren (W, 2-0) pitched eight innings allowing two runs on five hits and striking out two while earning the quality start. He got run support early with SVSU scoring two in the top of the first. Colin Cornwell doubled to left center to score Schuerer and move Hayden Jatczak to third. Jatczak scored on the next at-bat with an RBI ground out by Austin Schweiger to make it 2-0 over Maryville. In the third, the Cardinals doubled their lead as Reed Raymond singled to center to score Scheurer and Schweiger.
The Saints cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth when they took advantage of three singled and a hit batter to score two runs on three hits. The Maryville starter, Ben Gregory (L, 0-2) went six innings allowing four runs on seven hits. He left heading into the top of the seventh in a 4-2 game. The Saints could only muster those two runs as SVSU made it 5-2 in the seventh with an RBI walk by Raymond. The Cardinals doubled their runs in the ninth with a five-spot. An error and a single put two on and a sacrifice bunt moved them both into scoring position. After a line out, Jaccar Watkins singled through the right side to score both Cornwell and Schweiger. Connor Cornwell was hit by a pitch and Connor McClennen walked to load the bases. Schuerer stepped up and singled through the left side to score Watkins and Connor Cornwell. McClennen moved to third and scored on an error to put up three runs on the play and make it 10-2.
Reed Raymond took over for McLaren in the bottom of the ninth and got a perfect inning striking out the last two batters to secure the win.
Game two went the opposite with McKendree getting on the board first. Steven Hecht (L, 1-1) started for SVSU and gave up three runs in his three innings of work. A two-run double in the first and an RBI double in the second made it 3-0 Bearcats.
In the top of the fourth, Watkins was hit by a pitch and Jeff Reseigh walked to put two on with two outs. McClennen singled to right to score both and cut the McKendree lead to one. Ben Kochany took over in the fourth for SVSU pitching. He went 2.1 innings allowing three runs, two earned, on two hits and punched out three. McKendree had an RBI single in the fourth along with two runs in the sixth to make it 6-2.
Nick Bastian took over in the sixth and pitched 1.2 innings allowing one hit and struck out one. JJ Arbini was the final pitcher for SVSU as he struck out three of the four batters he faced in the ninth and walked one. Trey Cole (W, 1-1) pitched four innings in relief and earned the win. He allowed the lone run in the eighth when Colin Cornwell scored on an error to make it 6-3 Bearcats. Derek Galdoni (Sv, 1) pitched the ninth allowing one hit and one walk and stuck out one as he closed it out for McKendree.
Cardinal baseball wraps up the weekend trip to Missouri as they head back to St. Louis to play the University of Missouri - St. Louis on Sunday. First pitched is scheduled for 2:00 PM EST to wrap up the first weekend of the spring trip before the team packs up and heads to Arizona.