Kenosha, Wis. – Saginaw Valley State University baseball wrapped up their season series against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Saturday afternoon with a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) doubleheader. SVSU (18-16, 10-7) won 22-7 in seven innings and 10-5 in nine innings to take all six games against Parkside (9-24, 3-15) this season.
You could say the offense had a weekend to remember. The Cardinals scored 77 runs this weekend in four games. They scored 20 or more in three of them and double digits in all of them. Saginaw Valley hit multiple home runs in the first three games of the series, which are the only three games they hit multiple home runs in this season.
Game one went the same as the two on Friday. SVSU scored first and took a 1-0 lead with an Austin Schweiger RBI sacrifice fly. The Rangers did snag a one-run lead when they scored two in the bottom of the first, but that didn't last.
The crooked numbers would start in the third. 10 runs in the third put the game out of reach early on. A run scoring on an error, a bases loaded walk, and a hit-by-pitch pushed across the first three runs. Tucker Roe drove in two more with a single before touching home himself on a Jaccar Watkins triple. Watkins scored on a passed ball before Martin Money doubled home two more Cardinals making it 11-2.
Both starting pitchers played into the winning decisions of the game. Cardinal starter Hunter Merillat (W, 4-1) pitched four of the seven innings as he allowed four runs, three of them earned, and struck out seven. Noah Gerritson (L, 0-6) got hit with the first 11 runs against, however with an error in the third, only three runs were earned.
Parkside tallied two runs in the bottom of the third before SVSU put up six more in the fourth. Four separate RBI singles for Roe, Colin Cornwell, Schweiger, and Jeffrey Reseigh plus a two-RBI single for Reed Raymond pushed the score to 17-4 Saginaw Valley.
A fielder's choice scored one more in the fifth before Schweiger deposited a ball over the left field fence for a two-run home run, his fourth long ball of the season. In the sixth, another two-run home run was put on the board for SVSU. This one off the bat of Mark Harden III, his first home run in college baseball.
Nick Bastian pitched two scoreless innings striking out two in relief before giving way to Collin McMullen in the seventh. McMullen had three runs against and struck out one wrapping up game one with a 22-7 final score.
Game two was the first game of the weekend that SVSU did not score 20 or more runs. It started the same as game one with the Cardinals scoring one run in the first, an RBI double by Colin Cornwell, before the Rangers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first.
SVSU tied the game with a Connor McClennen RBI single in the second before taking the lead in the third. Connor Cornwell doubled home Austin Schweiger and his brother Colin making it 4-2 SVSU.
Steven Hecht (W, 1-3) had another run scored against in the third, but pitched three scoreless innings afterwards to earn a quality start and his first win of the season. Six innings pitched with four strikeouts and three runs against.
Chris Conrad (L, 1-4) didn't record an out in the fifth when the Cardinals scored three more runs. Logan Welch doubled home Reed Raymond and Martin Money and Connor Cornwell scored on a wild pitch making it 7-3. Conrad pitched four innings with seven runs against, six earned.
Brandon Scheurer took over the pitching duties in the seventh. He struck out two and gave up three hits, but got defensive help from Raymond and Welch who teamed up to throw out a runner at home.
Schweiger continued his big offensive day at the plate with an RBI single in the eighth. Saginaw Valley scored two more in the ninth on a Brendan Conkle RBI double and a Roe RBI single giving the Cardinals 10 runs in game two. Reed Raymond pitched the final two innings allowing one run in both and striking out two.
The Cardinal bats had their best series of the season this weekend. Colin Cornwell finished the day 5-for-9 and extended his hit streak to seven games. Austin Schweiger went 8-for-17 with two home runs. Tucker Roe has now recorded a hit in nine straight games after his 10-for-20 performance this week as well.
UP NEXT
Saginaw Valley has two non-conference games coming up this week. Tuesday they will host Hillsdale College (15-18), a rescheduled fame from March 14, and Wednesday they will host the University of Findlay (19-17), a newly scheduled game after the contest against Spring Arbor was cancelled earlier this week. SVSU split their four games against Findlay to begin the spring break trip in Florida.