HAMMOND, Ind. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program started their final GLIAC road trip of the regular season with a four-game series at Purdue Northwest Friday afternoon. The Cardinals (26-11, 15-4 GLIAC) fell 8-6 to the Pride (16-18, 6-13 GLIAC) after leading 4-1 in the fourth.
The Cardinals got a multi-hit performance from Connor McClennen who went 2-for-4 as seven others all got a hit. SVSU worked five walks as Brandon Scheurer and Colin Cornwell tallied two each. The two walks for Cornwell ties him for sixth overall in career walks for SVSU with 104.
The scoring started in the first as Austin Schweiger drove in Schuerer with a fielder's choice. Reed Raymond doubled the Cardinal lead in the third with a sacrifice fly to score Hayden Jatczak which made it 2-0 SVSU.
The Pride answered with one run of their own in the bottom of the third with an RBI double. The first multi-run inning was in the top of the fourth as Jaccar Watkins stole home when Scheurer swiped second on a pick off attempt. Col. Cornwell reached on an error later in the inning to score Scheurer to make it 4-1.
Purdue Northwest broke out in the bottom of the fourth with four runs to take their first lead. Two two-run singles put the Pride up 5-4. They extended their lead with an RBI double and an RBI single in the sixth. Tyler McLaren (L, 4-3) pitched six innings for SVSU allowing seven runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out six. Sam Ochoa (W, 2-3) started for the Pride and departed with the lead with one out in the sixth. He pitched 5.1 innings allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits and three walks.
SVSU brought it within one run in the seventh as Schweiger hit his first home run of the season. It was a solo home run to cut the lead to two. Raymond tripled afterwards and scored on a Jeff Reseigh sacrifice fly to make it 7-6 PNW.
Chase Gruno took to the mound in the seventh and allowing one run on two hits to bring the score to the final of 8-6 Purdue Northwest. JJ Arbini pitched a scoreless eighth inning allowing two walks and leaving the two runners stranded.
SVSU baseball continues the road trip with a doubleheader on Saturday against Purdue Northwest. The Cardinals hold a 2-1 season series lead over the Pride. Game one of the doubleheader is set for a 2:00 PM EST first pitch.