LEESBURG, Fla. – The Saginaw Valley State University softball team split on the fifth day of the Spring Break trip in Florida. The Cardinals (13-3) fell 2-0 to Lewis (13-6) in the first game before cruising to a 10-1 win over Bloomfield (0-12) in the final game of the day.
Five SVSU players finished the afternoon with two hits. That group was led by Olivia Sabin (2-for-5) who tallied a team-high two RBI for the day. Jackie Popko (2-for-4), Alexis Gills (2-for-3), Katelyn Pnacek (2-for-4), and Maddie Campagna (2-for-3) were the other Cardinals with multiple hits. Sydney Herioux (1-for-3) tallied two RBI to tie for the team-high in that category.
Game 1: Lewis def. Saginaw Valley State, 2-0
The first game of the day was a struggle for Saginaw Valley as they failed to get a hit until the fifth inning of play when Pnacek singled up the middle with two outs and was left on base. Sara Moos (1-for-5) doubled to left field in the seventh inning, but no runs were generated in the shutout loss to the Flyers.
Alyssa Muench (L, 5-1) pitched her fourth complete game as she struck out two hitters in the losing effort.
Game 2: Saginaw Valley State def. Bloomfield, 10-1 (5 Innings)
The Cardinal bats woke up in the second game as Popko and Gersch led off the first inning with singles. Popko stole second before Gersch's hit moved her to third when Gersch stole second for herself. A wild pitch scored Popko and SVSU led 1-0 early. Gills singled to center field and brought Gersch home and the Cardinals led 2-0 after one.
Gersch then hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Campagna in the second inning to increase the lead by three.
A big six-run third pushed the advantage to nine and the Cardinals never looked back. Sabin singled to left field and scored both Cam Coonan and Gills. Herioux doubled to left center and scored Sabin and Paige Thomson for two more. Popko hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Campagna and Pnacek brought Emily Beckas home with a triple to finish the inning with a 9-0 edge.
The Bears scored their lone run in the bottom half of the third after a hit by a pitch with the bases loaded put a tally on the board and cut the deficit to eight.
Beckas singled to left in the fourth inning to score Thomson and finalize the score at 10-1.
Jaclyn Groves got the start for the Cardinals at pitcher. Groves pitched 2.1 innings and struck out two before being relieved. Margot van Eijl (W, 2-0) got her second win as she pitched the final 2.2 innings and sat down four to preserve the large lead by SVSU.
UP NEXT
The SVSU softball team has its final day of competition in Florida tomorrow (Saturday, March 11) when they face Illinois-Springfield at 10:00 a.m. and finish with Missouri-St. Louis at 12:30 p.m.