UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program hosted Roosevelt University for their home opener Friday afternoon. The nearly four-hour game set a GLIAC single-game record with 37 combined hits with 37 as the Cardinals (11-6, 0-1 GLIAC) fell to the Lakers (6-13, 1-0 GLIAC) 20-16.
Six Cardinals had multi-hit games with Ryan Jarvis leading the way. Jarvis went 4-for-4 from the plate with four runs, one RBI, and a walk and hit a solo home run for his first long ball of his career. Buck Snabes went 4-for-6 with three doubles and four RBI. Austin Cicerone went 3-for-5 with two runs and six RBI blasting a grand slam in the third inning. Lucas Mead and Jordan Lewis both had three-hit days and Ethan Scheib tallied two hits and a walk.
SVSU's pitching staff struggled with command, issuing 13 walks over nine innings. SVSU used seven pitchers, with Chase Raymond starting and throwing three innings. Daniel Wilcome and Jacob Bardwell were the only two arms that didn't allow a run with Bardwell pitching an inning and Wilcome recording one out.
SVSU struck first with a double steal attempt in the bottom of the first. Mead was caught stealing but extended the rundown long enough for Jarvis to score, making it 1-0. Roosevelt tied the game in the second and Lewis doubled in the bottom half to score Connor Cornwell to take the 2-1 lead. The Lakers posed a five-spot in the third to take the first large lead of the game as the teams both put up crooked numbers throughout the contest.
Cicerone tied the game 6-6 in the third with a grand slam, his second home run of the year. Snabes doubled home a pair afterwards to take an 8-6 lead and Lewis extended the lead to three when he singled home Snabes. Roosevelt answered with an RBI walk and a grand slam, reclaiming an 11-9 lead in the fourth. Jarvis blasted his solo shot in the bottom half of the inning to trim the lead to one.
After a pair of runs for RU in the fifth, SVSU scored five in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead again. Cicerone doubled home Scheib, Mead singled home Jarvis, Snabes singled home both Cicerone and Mead and then Aaron Bess scored on a double play to put Saginaw Valley ahead 15-13.
Nathan Masar (L, 0-1) got out of a jam in the sixth, entering with the bases loaded and one out and retiring the next two batters to leave all three runners on base. In the seventh, Masar was charged with five runs on one hit, three walks, and a hit-by-pitch. Seven runs came across to put the Lakers ahead for good. Cicerone singled home a run in the seventh to cut the lead to four but the Cardinals left five runners on base in the final two innings.
Up Next: Saginaw Valley baseball hosts Roosevelt on Saturday, March 22 at 2:00 PM at the SVSU Baseball Complex. An originally scheduled doubleheader has become a single game with a doubleheader on Sunday. It's trading card giveaway day with the team handing out sets of SVSU baseball cards after the game on Saturday.
