BAY CITY, Mich. - The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) baseball head coaches have chosen the SVSU baseball team to finish in 5th place for the 2014 season.  The Cardinals finished with 74 points in the voting, 16 behind fourth-place Ohio Dominican.

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) baseball coaches selected Grand Valley State University to win the league title in the 2014 GLIAC Baseball Preseason Poll.
       
The league's head coaches participated in the balloting, but were not allowed to vote for their team.    

GVSU finished on top of the 2014 GLIAC Preseason poll after claiming the 2013 GLIAC regular season championship with a 22-7 league record.  The Lakers garnered 118 points and eight first-place votes.

Wayne State University was picked to finish second with 106 points and two first-place votes. Ashland University placed third in the poll with 101 points and two first-place vote, followed by Ohio Dominican with 90 points, in fourth place.    

Saginaw Valley State University collected 74 points, beating out Walsh University for fifth place with 62 points. Lake Erie College tallied 56 points to finish seventh in the poll. Tiffin University grabbed eighth place and tallied 51 points. Northwood University came in ninth and tallied 38 points, one point ahead of Malone University with 37.
Hillsdale College finished 11th with 30 points, followed by the University of Findlay in 12th (27 points).

This season, the GLIAC Baseball Tournament will be played at Athletes in Action Complex in Xenia, Ohio on May 8-11.

For more information about GLIAC baseball please visit the GLIAC baseball web page at: www.gliac.org.

Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
Head Coach: Walt Head
32nd Season
2014 Preaseason Pick: 5th

OVERVIEW: The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team looks to bounce back from a 2013 season that saw the Cardinals post a 16-24 overall record and 14-14 mark in GLIAC play, falling in the team's first two games of the GLIAC Tournament.  With only four seniors on the roster for 2014, SVSU will rely heavily on youth to carry the majority of the load.

Junior Chris Perkovich and sophomore DylinEschenburg return to shore-up the middle of the Cardinal infield.  Eschenburg batted .325 while starting 38 of 40 games as a freshman, recording 40 hits, six doubles, 11 RBI while hitting one home run and scoring 24 times.  Perkovich hit .275 with four home runs, three doubles, 18 runs and 25 RBI, which was second on the team.  The duo combined for a .942 fielding percentage on 328 total chances.

Roaming center field this spring for Saginaw Valley will be the team's leading hitter, junior Brad Schalk.  Schalk posted a .347 batting average while starting all 40 games, pounding-out a team-high 52 hits, six doubles, one triple, one home run.   He added 26 runs scored, 15 RBI and 15 walks.  Beside Schalk in left field will be senior Michael Craig.  Craig hit .280 last year, registering a double, 23 runs scored and 11 RBI in 35 games.  

The Cardinals will be without a pair of key pitchers due to injury this year, as starter Scott Sency and reliever Andrew Tidwell will be out for the 2014 campaign.  Junior lefty Andrew Geese returns as a starter after posting a 2-3 record last year in five starts while sophomore Dylan Wisniewski looks to build on last year's 3-1 record he posted in six 2013 starts.  Geese had 24 strikeouts last year while Wisniewski had 22.  Senior lefty Aaron Woods returns as well in a reliever role after posting a team-leading 2.00 era last season in 12 relief appearances, posting 22 strikeouts and allowing just six earned runs in 27.0 innings of work.

Walt Head returns for his 32nd season as the head coach of the SVSU baseball program.  The team has compiled an 860-630-6 career record under his tutelage, as all 32 years of his coaching tenure have been with SVSU.  The Cardinals have qualified for the last four GLIAC Postseason tournaments.

Click here for full GLIAC Preseason Poll Release