HAMMOND, IND. – No. 24 Cardinal split their final doubleheader of the season with Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opponent Purdue Northwest on the road Saturday afternoon. Saginaw Valley State fell in game one 12-5, before recording the most hits as a team in a single game with 17 on the way to a 13-6 victory in game two. The Cardinals reached the third-highest win total in program history with 40 wins. They are just two wins away from tying the second-most wins, a mark the team has hit twice before (2011 & 1999).
GAME 1: Pride 12 – SVSU 5
Both teams split a combined 10 errors, and the Pride pushed seven runs across the plate in the fourth inning to capture the win in game one.
Kate Pnacek led SVSU offensively with two hits, two RBI, and a run in the contest. Aalana Kimble also had two hits, along with a run and an RBI. Ella Reifschneider was the third Cardinal with two hits. She also walked once.
Kimble (L, 17-5) recorded the loss in the circle for Saginaw Valley. The sophomore pitched 4.0 innings and struck out five while surrendering 11 hits and 12 runs. None of the PNW runs in game one were earned. Grace Schloop pitched 2.0 innings of relief and gave up a hit and walked three.
Kimble got things going in the first with a triple to right field in the lead-off spot for SVSU. Reifschneider walked to put runners on the corners before Kenzie Bromley hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Kimble and gave the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.
Purdue Northwest got on base with a hit by pitch in the lead-off spot and an infield single before Kimble struck out the next two Pride hitters. An error by SVSU allowed the runner at second base to score, and the game was tied at one run after the opening inning.
Mya Purdy doubled to center field to lead off the second inning before moving to third on the next play. She was stranded there before being able to regain the lead for SVSU. The tie was preserved with a three-up, three-down bottom half of the inning.
Two Cardinal errors in the bottom of the third inning allowed the Pride to score four runs to take a 5-1 lead.
An error by PNW allowed Pnacek and Purdy to score runs, and the lead was down to 5-3 heading into the home half of the fourth.
Back-to-back errors by the Cardinals put runners on base for PNW, and the Pride used those to score seven runs that included a grand slam with two outs and the lead sat at 12-3 with three innings left to play.
Pnacek scored Ella Schneider and Jenna Morse in the fifth to halt the run-rule ending and put the score at 12-5, where it would remain until the end.
GAME 2: SVSU 13 – PNW 6
The Cardinals avoided being swept by a conference opponent this season by scoring in every inning but the sixth to win game two 13-6. SVSU tallied the most hits as a team in a single game with 17 in the contest.
Bromley was a nightmare at the plate as she led the team with three hits, with two of those going yard and a game-high four RBI. Schneider finished with three hits in her four at-bats, while scoring a run and bringing another home. Purdy finished 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. Morse (2-for-3) and Pnacek (2-for-4) recorded two hits. Pnacek had three RBI and scored twice while Morse scored twice.
Macy Irelan got the start for the Cardinals and went three innings with five strikeouts before being relieved by Olivia Elliott (W, 4-0). Elliott pitched four innings and struck out four batters to earn her fourth win of the season.
Reifschneider walked before Lillia Sherman and Bromley singled to load the bases with no outs in the first inning. Emma Helvie collected an RBI on a groundout to second base that scored Reifschneider and put the score at 1-0, Cards. Purdy followed up with a sacrifice fly to right field that brought Sherman home, and SVSU hopped out to a two-run lead after one inning.
Pnacek added a third run with a solo-shot home run to lead off the second inning. Sherman scored Morse on a sacrifice fly later in the frame, and the score was 4-0.
Schneider doubled to center field to score Purdy in the top of the third, and the lead was at 5-0. PNW responded with four runs on two hits and a Cardinal error in the home half to trim the lead to 5-4.
That was the closest the Pride would get as Saginaw Valley scored a run in the fourth, four in the fifth, and three more in the seventh for the 13-run total.
Bromley blasted a home run over the center-field fence in the fourth for the 6-4 advantage. Purdey singled up the middle to score Emma Bolding. Pnacek doubled to center field to score two more, and Elliott doubled to left center to bring Pnacek home, and the lead moved to 9-4 after five innings.
A triple scored a run and a ground out another for PNW in the sixth, and the Pride closed the gap to three runs, 9-6.
Bromley tacked on three more with her second home run of the game, this one over the left field fence, and scored Elliott and Morse in the process for the final score of the game.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals wait for their opponent to be determined for the GLIAC Tournament next week. SVSU is the only team seeded for the tournament right now, with four teams set to play doubleheaders tomorrow before the final seeding can be announced. Saginaw Valley State will get a first-day bye as the top seed and will play the winner of the 4/5 matchup from day one at 11:00 a.m. (CT) on Friday, May 2.