AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Saginaw Valley State University baseball played Wilmington (Del.) and Ashland Friday afternoon at Lake Myrtle Park in Auburndale, Florida. The Cardinals (9-6) fell 4-3 and 13-9 in two tough games where the Cardinals led in the final three innings. The Wildcats (8-3) used a three-run seventh and the Eagles (6-5) took advantage of seven runs in the eighth to claim the victories.
Buck Snabes (Rochester, Mich. / Rochester Adams HS) and Aaron Bess (Boyne City, Mich. / Boyne City HS) led the team with three RBI each. Snabes was 4-for-9 on the day with two doubles and a home run. Bess was 2-for-4 with a home run and two walks. Chase Miller (Walkerton, Ind. / John Glenn HS) played well defensively with no errors through 10 chances at shortstop and was 4-for-9 at the plate, scoring a pair of runs.
Game One: Cardinals - 3, Wildcats - 4
Jack Sequin (L, 3-1) (Bay City, Mich. / Bay City Western HS) pitches seven innings and allowed four runs, one earned, on four hits and a walk while punching out four. He pitched effectively and was taxed with three unearned runs in the seventh.
Snabes got SVSU on the board first with a solo home run in the second, his first home run of the season. Ethan Scheib (Mattawan, Mich. / Mattawan HS) doubled the advantage in the next frame when he dropped a bunt down and beat out the throw from the pitcher. The throw hit off Scheib as he touched first, allowing Miller to round third and score from second to make it 2-0.
Wilmington got a run back with an RBI single in the fifth. The Wildcats took advantage of an error to tie the game in the seventh. After, a two-run single put them ahead 4-2.
Will Juday (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Central HS) pitched the eighth, striking out one and allowing a hit in the scoreless frame. Chase Fleming started for the Wildcats and gave up two runs, one earned, through 6.2 innings of work. Yoshi Conti (W, 1-0) got the win, coming in to face one batter in the seventh and being the pitcher of record when the lead was taken. Garrett Quinn (Sv, 3) took over in the ninth with the bases loaded. He gave up a sacrifice fly to score Scheib, hit a batter to reload the bases, and got a strikeout to end the game.
Game Two: Cardinals - 9, Eagles – 13
The second contest showcased the starting pitching dual between Jack Decker (Farmington Hills, Mich. / North Farmington HS) and Drew Becker. Both pitched five innings as Decker gave up three runs on six hits, two walks, and struck out four. For the Eagles, Becker gave up three runs on five hits, a walk, and six strikeouts.
Ashland too the lead in the first with a solo home run and an RBI single. They extended the lead with a sacrifice fly in the third to make it 3-0.
Bess got a run back with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, his third of the year. Bess brought more offense in the fifth, tying the game with a two-run single that plated Connor Cornwell (Sterling Heights, Mich. / Henry Ford II HS) and Jacob Pitt (Grand Rapids, Mich. / Catholic Central HS).
Ashland blasted their way ahead with their second home run of the game, a three-run shot in the seventh to go ahead 6-3.
Saginaw Valley responded with their best offensive frame of the trip, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Jarvis (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota HS) singled home Miller, Snabes doubled home Bess and Lucas Mead (Gladwin, Mich. / Gladwin HS), and then Pitt singled home Jarvis and Snabes, giving SVSU an 8-6 lead.
The lead didn't hold as Ashland put up seven in the top of the eighth. A three-run double, a two-run single, and back-to-back RBI singles helped the Eagles get ahead for good. An RBI ground out for SVSU in the eighth made it 13-9.
Andrew Pohlman (L, 0-1) (Grand Rapids, Mich. / Grandville HS) took the loss allowing three runs in the eighth. Ben Sibert (W, 2-0) got the win with 1.2 innings of work before leaving after the eighth inning. Juday made his second appearance of the night, pitching 1.1 innings of scoreless ball with two hits and a strikeout.
Up Next: Saginaw Valley has one more game of RussMatt baseball. The Cardinals and the Minnesota-Crookston Golden Eagles are set for a 9:00 AM first pitch on Saturday, March 7.
