Winter Park, Fla. – Saginaw Valley State University started the trip to Florida with a late arrival of 3:30 a.m. on Friday before a doubleheader against University of Findlay at Rollins College.
SVSU (4-4) dominated on Friday scoring in 13 of the 16 innings they played against the Oilers (4-6). The Cardinals swept the two games winning 16-4 and 7-2.
Game one started with Tyler McLaren (W, 3-0) on the mound. McLaren had another great outing coming off of being named the GLIAC Pitcher of the Week. He threw 6 1/3 innings striking out 10 batters and allowed four runs, three of them earned.
Findlay took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first before the SVSU bats burst into flames. In the second, Connor McClennen tied it with an RBI single. Then in the third, Austin Schweiger gave the Cardinals the lead with an RBI sacrifice fly. The fourth inning was the first multi-run inning for SVSU. Tucker Roe doubled home Jeffery Reseigh, Colin Cornwell hit a sacrifice fly to score McClennen, and Schweiger singled scoring Roe making it 5-1.
Oiler starter Anthony Kyle (L, 1-1) was chased out in the fourth. He finished with 3 2/3 innings pitched allowing five runs on seven hits and three walks.
The Cardinals extended their lead in the fifth on a balk and a wild pitch pushing the lead to six. After an Oiler run in the fifth, Martin Money hit a solo home run in the sixth. Two more runs scored on a Reseigh RBI single and Brendan Scheurer scored on an error as SVSU hit double digit runs with a 10-2 lead.
The foot stayed on the gas as Schweiger doubled home another in the seventh and Cornwell had an RBI single in the eighth. Then, Jaccar Watkins had a chance for his second grand slam of the season. However, he blasted one off the top of the wall scoring all three runners with a triple. A run scoring double play in the ninth rounded out the offense for SVSU bringing their lead to 16-4.
Chase Gruno pitched 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball with three strikeouts and Drew Cooper had his first appearance pitching one inning striking out two and didn't allow a run.
Game two was a seven-inning game and Cardinal starter Hunter Merillat (W, 1-0) battled back from some early walk trouble to give his team a good chance to win. Merillat pitched four innings, allowing the only two Oiler runs on three hits, and struck out four.
Brandon Scheurer pitched one inning, striking out two, and Reed Raymond (Sv, 1) worked the final two innings allowing no runs on one hit and one walk. He also struck out two on his way to earn the save.
SVSU took the lead in the top of the second on a Brendan Conkle RBI sacrifice bunt. Findlay tied it in their half of the inning, but never saw a lead in game two. Brady Carpenter recorded his first hit in his first Cardinal at-bat, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1 SVSU in the third. Money doubled the lead as he scored Roe on an RBI ground out.
After an Oiler run in the third, another wild pitch scored a run for the Cardinals. They would score three times on wild pitches in game two. In the sixth, Colin Cornwell pinch hit and blasted one over the wall in right field to push the lead to 5-2. In the final inning, Roe reached on a throwing error that scored Raymond, and then later was the final wild pitch run giving the Cardinals their 7-2 lead.
Braeden Goulet (L, 0-1) pitched most of the game for Findlay. 5 2/3 innings for Goulet as the Cardinals pushed four runs across on five hits and a walk.
UP NEXT
Cardinals look to win their first series of the early season with another doubleheader against Findlay Saturday.
