CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball program wrapped up their four-game series against the University of Findlay with a 5-0 no hitter in seven innings and a 21-6 victory Monday afternoon. The Cardinals (3-1) had their first no hitter since 1992 with Hayden Jatczak (W, 1-0) pitching all seven innings in game one with seven strikeouts.
SVSU got major offensive performances by Austin Cicerone going 4-for-7 in game two with four RBI along with Colin Cornwell going 5-for-7 over both games with six RBI and two walks. Cornwell also hit two doubles, a triple, and a home run. The Cardinals put up 26 runs and 25 hits over the 16 innings on Monday and struck out 21 Oilers on route to a major day at the ballpark.
Game one started slow with the scoring opening up in the fourth. Reed Raymond doubled to right center and eventually scored on an Ethan Rose sacrifice fly to break the 0-0 tie. In the fifth, a hit batter and a walk put two on for Cicerone who tripled to center field to put SVSU up 3-0. Cicerone added one more with an RBI single in the seventh scoring Jeffrey Reseigh. Austin Schweiger followed up two batters later with another RBI single to make it 5-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Jatczak was one inning away from a perfect game after going 18 batters up, 18 batters down to start the day. A hit batter and a walk in the seventh ended the perfect game bid, but it led to the first no hitter for the Cardinals in 32 years. Jatczak went seven innings, no hits, no runs, one walk, one hit batter, and seven strikeouts in his record book performance.
Game two was explosive. Jatczak started with a two-run home run in the first inning as Saginaw Valley put up the first nine runs in the game. three more in the first along with four in the second including a two-RBI double by Connor Cornwell to make it 9-0. SVSU continued to put up runs while starter Chase Raymond went three innings striking out three and allowing three runs. Ben Kochany took over in the bottom of the fourth with a 12-3 lead. Kochany pitched two innings allowing three runs on four hits and while striking out two.
Colin Cornwell hit a solo home run for his first of the year in the top of the sixth to make it 14-6 as the rout continued. Cicerone singled home two more in the eighth before a run scoring error made it 17-6. Derek Beougher pinch hit in the ninth and delivered the big blast with a grand slam to make it a 15-run game.
The Cardinals used five relievers including Kochany. Carson Bassett (W, 1-0) pitched two innings allowing two walks and striking out three. Brandon Scheurer pitched a clean inning with three punch outs. Matt Montroy got the first two outs on strikes in the ninth inning before Christopher Schmees struck out the final batter for the win.
After the weekend series that was moved due to weather, the Cardinals head back to Ohio next weekend. Three games against Cedarville start with one on Friday from Xenia, Ohio at 3:00 PM before a double header on Saturday starting at 11:00 AM.