UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University softball team swept Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opponent Davenport at home on Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals (25-9, 9-3 GLIAC) earned two big wins in conference play that cement themselves in second place in the standings, three games ahead of Purdue Northwest who will come to town on Saturday to face SVSU.
Olivia Sabin, Sydney Herioux, and Sarah Gersch all recorded four hits on the afternoon with Sabin completing the day with a .800 average at the plate. Alexis Gills had three hits and tied with Gersch in bringing three runners in. Katelyn Pnacek finished with two hits and two runs to help the winning cause.
Game 1: Saginaw Valley State def. Davenport, 7-0
Herioux got things going in the second inning with a double down the left-field line to score Maddie Campagna and Cam Coonan for the 2-0 lead early in game one.
Gersch added to the lead in the third with a run during a groundout to second base for the 3-0 edge. Paige Kolinski singled up the middle in the fifth to score Pnacek to increase the lead by one. Gersch scored another run on the next play as the Cardinals took a 5-0 lead into the sixth.
A wild pitch brought Sabin home before Gills drilled a home run to center field for the game's final tally.
Emily Depew (W, 9-3) got the win in the circle for the Cardinals. The victory was the 41st of her career and helped her crack the top-10 all-time wins record book in seventh place. Depew also tallied 401 career strikeouts after her complete game-one performance. She becomes just the sixth Cardinals pitcher to reach 400 strikeouts.
Game 2: Saginaw Valley State def. Davenport, 9-7
The Panthers got rolling early in the second game with a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Not to be outpaced, Gersch doubled in the bottom half of the inning to score both Pnacek and Gills to knot things up. Sabin then singled down the right-field line to score Gersch and flip the advantage back the home team's way.
Paige Thomson got home in the third to increase the lead to 4-2 before a three-run top of the fourth gave the lead back to Davenport, 5-4.
Gills singled up the middle to score Emily Beckas and tie the score again. Gersch then brought Gills home before scoring herself on a throwing error and Thomson scored during a pickle on the other end of the base path for the 8-5 lead.
Davenport scored twice in the fifth to come within one run of tying it again, but the Cardinals got out of the inning before that could happen.
Gills hit a sacrifice fly to center field that brought Sara Moos home for the last run of the afternoon.
Jaclyn Groves (W, 6-2) got the start at pitcher for SVSU and totaled four innings of work with two strikeouts to earn the win in game two. Margot van Eijl pitched three innings of relief to help SVSU secure the win and earn the first save of her Cardinal career.
UP NEXT
The SVSU softball team will host Purdue Northwest this Saturday, April 15 with the first pitch scheduled for noon.
