UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team tied for second with Davenport in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) preseason coaches' poll.
The Cardinals are coming off their best season in the last 15 years posting a 27-24 record and 17-13 in conference play. Their season came to an end in the GLIAC tournament after an 8-7 loss in 12 innings to Grand Valley and a 2-1 loss to Wayne State without giving up a run on a base hit to the Warriors.
Saginaw Valley brings back 17 seniors including five batters who hit over .300 last year. Tyler McLaren led the team in wins, strikeouts, and ERA with a minimum 10 innings pitched. Colin Cornwell led the team hitting .342 and drove in 46 RBI and was second with 16 doubles. Jaccar Watkins led the team in triples with eight, sitting two away from the SVSU career record. Austin Schweiger led the team with five home runs and Reed Raymond led the team in slugging with .506. Raymond also led the team with five saves pitching 20 innings in 13 appearances. Chase Gruno made 16 appearances striking out 20 in 19 innings. Nick Bastian led the team with 17 appearances and had the lowest ERA behind McLaren with 3.10.
Eight freshmen join the team with two pitchers, Ben Kochany and Caden Glennie. They are joined by five position players, Lucas Mead, Austin Cicerone, Buck Snabes, Ryan Jarvis, and David Murawski along with one two-way player, Nathan Masar.
Adam Piotrowicz enters his second season as the head coach. He is assisted by pitching coach Justin McMurtrey, baserunning and outfield coach Brandon Evans, and two volunteer assistants, Connor Charping and Christian Penn.
Baseball starts the 2024 season heading to play the University of Findlay in Chillicothe, Ohio with a four-game weekend series starting Friday, February 16. They follow the trip up with three games against Cedarville in Xenia, Ohio before heading to St. Louis for a three-game round robin weekend before heading to Arizona for five games over spring break. The Cardinals will host their first home game on Wednesday, March 13 as the Hillsdale Chargers come to town. Saginaw Valley heads back to division one opponent Central Michigan on Tuesday March 26. A matchup that the Cardinals won last year 7-4.
SVSU heads to Parkside to play a double-header against the Rangers and Grand Valley to start conference play on February 22 and 23. The Cardinals will host conference opponents Wayne State for one game in March, Purdue Northwest for two games at the end of the month, a four-game series against Davenport in the middle of April, four games against Grand Valley at the end of April, and four games against Parkside to end the regular season at the beginning of May before the GLIAC tournament starts Thursday, May 9.