LAKELAND, Fla. - The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team fell to Florida Southern College tonight (Mar. 6), 4-3. The loss drops the Cardinals to 1-5 on the season as the Mocs improve to 10-7 overall.
Kyle O'Boyle (Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek HS) put the Cardinals on the board in the top of the first with an RBI double that sailed over the right fielder's head and scored Ryan Ermers (Sterling Heights, Mich./Henry Ford II HS) to put SVSU up 1-0.
Florida Southern answered back with three runs in the bottom half of the fourth to take a 3-1 advantage.
In the top of the sixth inning, O'Boyle came to the plate with Cam Wiechmann (Birch Run, Mich./Muskegon CC) on first and ripped his first home run of the season to left center field, bringing the Cardinals even with the Mocs at 3-3. O'Boyle finished the night going 2-for-4 with 3 RBI's.
After Florida Southern scored to take the lead after six innings, Saginaw Valley was unable to capitalize on a lead-off double in the top of the ninth by Mike VanAlst (Clio, Mich.) and fell by a 4-3 final. VanAlst recorded two hits on the evening for SVSU.
Junior Eric Hummel (Menominee, Mich./Minnesota-Duluth) threw a complete game for the Cardinals giving up four runs on eight hits including nine strikeouts in eight innings of work. Hummel threw 109 pitches on the evening.
The Cardinals will have an off day on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday against No. 26 Minnesota State University Mankato. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 PM in Winter Haven, Fla.
