DETROIT – After a home sweep on Saturday over Wayne State University, the Saginaw Valley State University softball team traveled to take on the Warriors for a doubleheader Sunday in Detroit.
The Cardinals took game one 4-1 over the Warriors with strong pitching from Emily Depew and Alyssa Muench. SVSU extended its win streak to eight games, rallying for a 6-5 win in game two.
The sweep pushes SVSU to 27-12 overall and 16-10 in the GLIAC with four games remaining in the regular season.
In game one, SVSU scored early starting with a Leah Denome RBI in the first followed by an RBI single later in the inning from Sara Moos. The score remained 2-0 in favor of the Cardinals until the fifth when Blasia Moyler led off the inning with a double and scored on a Sabrina Sage sacrifice fly.
Jackie Popko tripled to lead off the sixth for SVSU and Julia Salisbury drove her home on an RBI single. Wayne State got on the board with a run in the sixth, but the Cardinals closed it out for the win.
Emily Depew improved to 9-1 on the season with the win, allowing one run on five hits, walking two, and striking out four in 5.1 innings. Alyssa Muench finished the game out with 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.
Just as they did in the first three games against Wayne State this weekend, the Cardinals scored multiple runs in the first inning of Sunday's finale. Denome drove in two runs with an RBI single in the first to make it 2-0.
The Warriors had an answer this time, scoring five times in the bottom of the inning to go up by three. The score remained the same until the fifth when SVSU began to chip away with an RBI from Salisbury, while Moyler hit a solo home run in the sixth to cut the deficit to one.
Down to their last at bat, the Cardinals came through with the tying run, as Popko scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Moos laid down a bunt to score the go-ahead run.
Julia Mundy (9-4) got the win in relief, allowing two runs on eight hits, walking three, and striking out one in six innings. Muench made her second appearance of the day to earn the save in the seventh, her second of the season.
SVSU closes the regular season with four road games this week, starting with a doubleheader against GLIAC-leading Grand Valley State University at 2 pm Tuesday in Allendale, Mich.