UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program hosted the Northwood Timberwolves Tuesday afternoon and lost with a final score of 3-2. The Cardinals (11-5) outhit the Timberwolves (9-9) eight to six but lost with the winning run coming in the top of the eighth.
Colin Cornwell and Austin Schweiger both had 2-for-4 days with Schweiger tallying a double out of the four hits. Connor McClennen had a double as well with the final three hits being singles by Brandon Scheurer, Reed Raymond, and Brady Carpenter.
The Cardinals used nine pitchers with starter Jackson Decker going two innings. Christopher Schmees, Ryan Adams, Chase Gruno, Nick Bastian, and Ben Kochany all pitched one inning each. JJ Arbini (L, 0-3) gave up one run on one hit and a walk without recording an out before Matt Montroy took over and got two outs in the eighth. Raymond moved from the designated hitter spot to the mound and closed out with the final four outs.
Saginaw Valley got on the board first in the second inning. Jaccar Watkins walked and stole second before McClennen doubled down the right field line to make it 1-0. Scheurer singled to center field on the next at-bat to double the lead.
The only two Cardinal runs went against Northwood's starter, Tyler Sager, who pitched six innings allowing seven hits and a walk. The Timberwolves responded in the top of the third with a solo home run and an RBI double that tied the game 2-2. Both runs were taxed to Schmees.
After four scoreless innings, Benji Alderson (W, 2-0) took over on the mound for Northwood. He pitched 1.1 innings allowing one hit. In the top of the eighth, SVSU got into a jam with the bases loaded. Montroy entered the game for Arbini and the next batter flew out to left field but drove in the go ahead run with the sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 NU. After a ground out, Raymond took over for Montroy to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jake Jekielek (Sv, 3) donned the mound with one out and secured the final five outs of the game to earn the save and give Northwood the one-run victory.
After the loss, Saginaw Valley hits the road to start conference play. The Cardinals head to Wisconsin to play Parkside (11-7) on Friday with a double header starting at 1:00 PM EST. SVSU will stay in Kenosha afterwards to play Grand Valley State (8-8) on Saturday in double header action as well with a 1:00 PM EST first pitch.
