Lansing, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University Cardinal baseball team had one of their craziest back and forth games of the 2023 season facing the Grand Valley State University Lakers in their opener of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) tournament at Jackson Field in Lansing, Michigan. SVSU (27-23) came off a four-game series against GVSU (29-19) where they won three of four, and the fifth game between this two in the last week was the most competitive as they traded leads multiple times in the last two innings of regulation before falling 8-7 in 12 innings.
It started with a blast in the bottom of the first as leadoff batter Tucker Roe smashed a ball to left field that got over the tall wall for a solo home run to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. They extended their lead a few batters later with a Martin Money sacrifice fly that scored Colin Cornwell.
Tyler McLaren (8-1) started with three scoreless innings before giving up one in the fourth and one in the fifth. He finished with six innings pitched, two runs on six hits and two walks and three strikeouts. Saginaw Valley scored one in the bottom of the fourth to keep the advantage. Reed Raymond singled up the middle to score Money which led to a 3-2 lead after the fifth.
Nick Bastian took over in the bottom of the seventh and worked through an error and a hit batter to keep the lead. Grand Valley starter Nick Rutkowski (8-2) departed in the eighth with seven innings of work allowing three runs on six hits and three walks. He also had three punch outs.
In the top of the eighth, Grand Valley tallied two runs to take a 4-3 lead. Both against Bastian who finished with two innings allowing two runs and striking out two. With the Lakers taking their first lead of the game, the Cardinals kept their head up. Cornwell singled, Austin Schweiger singled, and Money singled to load the bases with no outs. Raymond lifted a ball to the outfield to score Cornwell on a sacrifice fly to tie it 4-4. The next batter, Jeffrey Reseigh, put down a sacrifice bunt to score Schweiger and take a 5-4 lead, but Money was doubled off trying to score and ended the inning.
Reed Raymond came in to close the game in the ninth and after two singles and two outs, a clutch double to left scored two to give Grand Valley a 6-5 lead. After two close groundouts, Saginaw Valley was down to their final out. Roe singled to keep the line moving and advanced on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Now at third, Jaccar Watkins drove him in with a single the other way to tie the game and force extras.
A scoreless 10th led to the 11th. Raymond left after two innings of work and gave way to Chase Gruno (L, 2-3). He stranded a runner at first in his first inning of work and looked for the win. Sam Leck (W, 2-2) got into some trouble in the 11th allowing Brandon Scheurer to walk to lead off. A wild pitch and a sacrifice bunt moved Scheurer to third with one out. The winning run 90 feet away, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the frame.
Another two spot came for the Lakers in the 12th. A walk came around to score on a triple to give them a 7-6 lead and then Grand Valley extended the lead with a sacrifice fly. More adversity for Saginaw Valley who faced it head on. After an out to start the inning, Ethan Rose pinch hit and doubled into the right center gap. Money doubled next to score Rose and have the tying runner at second with one out. A ground out moved Money to third, but a fly ball to center was tracked down to end the game.
Roe, Cornwell, Schweiger, Money, and Raymond all ended with multi-hit days and every starting batter reached base for Saginaw Valley. McLaren earned a quality start and every relief pitcher pitched two innings with at least one strike out.
UP NEXT
Saginaw Valley now faces the GLIAC favorite Wayne State University (39-10) in an elimination game on Friday at 3:00 p.m. EST. Wayne State defeated Parkside Thursday, so their tournament life is not at risk. Purdue Northwest defeated Davenport and will play Grand Valley. Parkside and Davenport will square off in the morning in a win or go home situation.
