UNIVERSITY CENTER, MICH. – The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team completed the season sweep of Parkside with a 7-1 on Sunday. The Cardinals (36-13, 23-7 GLIAC) recorded the first 30+ win season since 2008, it is the 13th 30-win season and tied for the third most wins in program history.
Hayden Jatczak added to his history season as he took possession of the single-season record for hits yesterday and claimed the record for doubles in a season today with 22. The senior from Bay City, Michigan currently ranks third in the country in batting average.
Steven Hecht (W, 4-2 got the start on the mound. He went 5.2 innings with three hits, one run, two walks, and six strikeouts. Nick Bastian came in relief and went 2.1 innings with one hit and two strikeouts. Derek Slocum finished the game with the final inning of work where he struck out two and allowed a hit to seal the win.
Brandon Scheurer got things going in the first inning with a double to center field to get in scoring position. Jatczak then stepped up and hit the record-breaking double to score Scheurer and give the Cardinals the 1-0 lead with no outs. Austin Schweiger hit a sacrifice fly that scored Jatczak and increased the lead to 2-0 after one.
A double to left field in the top of the third inning led to a score by the Rangers to put the score at 2-1. Collin Cornwell walked to get on base in the bottom half and Reed Raymond brought him home with a double to center field to regain a two-run advantage.
Connor McClennen doubled to right field in the sixth inning to score Cam Steeves and the gap moved to 4-1.
Cornwell singled to left field and Jatczak scored from third base to extend the lead to 5-1. The final two runs of the game were brought by Jaccar Watkins who smashed a home run over the fence in right-center field to score Austin Cicerone and put the score where it would be at the end of the final inning.
Watkins led the SVSU bats with three hits in four at-bats and two RBI. Scheurer, McClennen, and Jatczak recorded two hits with Jatczak scoring twice and bringing home another.
UP NEXT
The SVSU baseball team clinched the top seed and outright GLIAC Regular Season Championship and will look to make a deep run in the postseason, starting with the conference tournament in Lansing, Michigan that begins on Thursday, May 3.