CRESTWOOD, Ill. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program has had a hectic weekend dealing with weather and scheduling changes, but they finally played their first conference games with a doubleheader against Grand Valley Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals (12-6, 1-1 GLIAC) originally were supposed to play Parkside on Friday and Grand Valley on Sunday at Parkside's field. With the inclement weather that rolled through the Midwest, SVSU played the Lakers (11-9, 3-1 GLIAC) at Ozinga Field in Crestwood, Illinois and will head back to Parkside on Monday to play the Rangers (11-9, 0-2 GLIAC).
Saginaw Valley won game one of the doubleheader 6-2 in seven innings and dropped game two 10-2 in nine innings. Hayden Jatczak had a good day on the mound and at the plate. Jatczak earned the win in game one with his five innings of two run baseball while going 4-for-8 on the day with 2-for-4 performances in both games. The Cardinal pitching staff also combined for 16 strikeouts on the day.
Game one started with a bang as Brandon Scheurer walked, Jatczak singled, and Austin Schweiger walked to load the bases. Austin Cicerone stepped up with two outs and blasted his first career home run as a Cardinal, which was a grand slam to put SVSU up 4-0 in the first. Saginaw Valley got a run in the second and third with an RBI double by Colin Cornwell and when Reed Raymond stole third and scored on an error to make it 6-0.
Jatczak (W, 3-0) pitched five innings allowing two runs on four hits and four walks while striking out six batters. A two-run single in the bottom of the third was the only scoring for Grand Valley as they cut the lead to 6-2. Nick Bastian took over in the sixth and pitched two innings allowing one hit and striking out three on the way to closing out the game for SVSU. All six runs for the Cardinals were taxed to GVSU starter Mike Morawski (L, 1-3) who pitched three innings and allowed five hits and three walks.
Game two went the complete opposite. SVSU starter Tyler McLaren (L, 2-1) went 2.1 innings allowing eight runs on 11 hits. Grand Valley put up two runs in the first, one in the second, and five in the third to go up 8-0 early. Ben Kochany took over in the third for McLaren and went three innings with three hits and two strikeouts. He gave up one run in the sixth before giving the ball to Matt Montroy who got the final two outs of the sixth.
The Laker starter, Michael Riley (W, 1-2) went six innings of work allowing two runs on six hits. SVSU got their two runs off Riley with one in the fourth and fifth. Jatczak singled home Scheurer and Connor Cornwell singled home Raymond to make it 8-2. An RBI triple in the top of the sixth was the lone run against Kochany to make it a seven-run game for GVSU. Christopher Schmees pitched the eighth and ninth allowing one run on two hits with a sacrifice fly being the final run of the game to make it 10-2 Lakers. Jake Shelagowski got his second appearance of the season with one inning of work allowing one walk and striking out one in the ninth.
The Cardinals are back in action on Monday and have a packed schedule this week. First, a GLIAC doubleheader at Parkside with first pitch at 1:00 PM on Monday. After that, SVSU heads to Central Michigan University (6-18, 3-6 MAC) on Tuesday before hosting Wayne State University (15-6, 4-0 GLIAC) to another GLIAC game on Wednesday.