ST. LOUIS – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program wrapped up their four-game trip to Missouri Sunday afternoon when they played the University of Missouri - St. Louis. The Cardinals (8-3) got ahead 12-0 in the first three innings and defeated the Tritons (6-5) with a final score of 18-13.
SVSU totaled 20 hits on their way to victory including home runs from Hayden Jatczak, Buck Snabes, and Colin Cornwell. Jatczak went 3-for-5 on the day with three runs scored and two RBI along with getting the start. He pitching four innings allowing one run on four hits and struck out six. Snabes went 2-for-4 and drove in four runs as he smashed his hit and home run of his career.
The Cardinals broke open the scoring early. In the first, Jatczak swatted his third home run of the season with a two-run bomb to make it 2-0. Col. Cornwell scored on a ground out later on to extend the lead. After a Connor Cornwell walk in the second, Snabes hit a two-run home run as well to make it 5-0. Col. Cornwell made it three two-run shots with his own in the second to continue the offensive explosion. Con. Cornwell walked with the bases loaded to push across one more before Snabes singled to right to score Austin Cicerone and Reed Raymond to make it 10-0. All 10 runs were against the Tritons starter, Dustin Hagens (L, 1-2), who went 1.2 innings of work with seven hits against. Moving to the third, Raymond doubled home a run and Jaccar Watkins singled home one to make it 12-0.
Jatczak got a lot of run support working through his four innings. He gave up a solo home run in the fourth as UMSL got on the board. That was the only run Jatczak gave up in his impressive performance both on the mound and at the plate. Ryan Adams (W, 1-0) took over in the fifth and threw an inning allowing one run on three hits.
SVSU got three runs in the sixth with a two-RBI single by Austin Schweiger along with an RBI fielder's choice by Raymond to make it 15-2. Carson Bassett took over in the sixth on the mound and gave up two hits but struck out two. Bassett went back out for the seventh, but gave up two hits, two walks, and a hit batter before Matt Montroy came in to pitch. Seven runs came across to score on three hits as Bassett was awarded five of them and two went to Montroy who pitched 0.2 innings. Jackson Decker got the call from the pen with two outs and got a ground out to end the arduous inning.
The Cardinals took advantage of errors late as they scored two in the eighth on two hits and three errors to extend their lead to 17-8. Decker finished the eighth and got one out in the ninth to put up 1.2 innings pitched. He allowed four runs on four hits and struck out two before giving the ball to Raymond. Raymond faced two batters, getting both out, but one run scoring on a sacrifice fly which went to Decker's line. A combined 31 runs on 36 hits as the Cardinals played error free baseball and took advantage of the six errors by the Tritons.
Three wins on the weekend as SVSU baseball heads home before getting ready to fly out to Arizona later this week. The Cardinals will play five games in four days starting with a matchup against Walsh on Wednesday. First pitch from Tucson is set for 3:00 PM EST.