CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - The Wayne State University baseball team (33-18) capped off the third day of the GLIAC Tournament with a 13-6 victory over Saginaw Valley State University (26-26) on Friday night at V.A. Memorial Stadium.  The win eliminated the Cardinals and set up a rematch with Grand Valley State in Saturday's championship game.

Four Warriors reached base via a hit, a walk or a hit by pitch at least four times in the game as Wayne State out-hit SVSU, 18-13, in the slugfest.  The game started 90 minutes late and just 30 minutes after Saginaw Valley State eliminated Lake Erie with a 7-6 win in a 15-inning, four-hour marathon.

Andrew Ciennik (Waterford, Mich./Mott) went 3-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored.  Kenny Davis (Wyoming, Mich./Lee) had three hits, two walks, two RBI and two runs scored, while Kyle Zimmerman (Frankfort, Mich.) also contributed three hits and scored twice.  Kasey Koster (Portage, Mich./Central), one of four Warriors with two hits, drove in four runs.

After SVSU established a 5-3 lead and chased starter Greg Spiess (Saline, Mich.) from the game, Justin Sylvester (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) came in and allowed just one run over the final 6.1 innings.  Sylvester (2-0) scattered five hits, walked one and struck out a pair in the longest outing of his career.

Base hits by Zimmerman, Alex Trojan (Fenton, Mich./Hartland) and Koster each produced a run as Wayne State jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.  Saginaw Valley State tied it with two runs in the bottom half and another run in the second, as the teams combined for nine hits in the first two frames.

Mike VanAlst's RBI single in the third was the final hit allowed by Spiess.  Sylvester was called for a balk which led to a run, but the senior right-hander retired four of the next five batters.

Koster smacked a bases-clearing double to right in the top of the fifth, which gave Wayne State a 6-5 lead.  In the bottom half, Davis made a great defensive play on an odd infield hop to start a 6-4-3 double play which ended the fifth.

Davis singled to start WSU's six-run fifth inning, during which the Warriors sent 12 hitters to the plate.  Ciennik singled in two runs, as did Davis with his second base hit of the inning.

Brandon Schwanz led off the seventh with a triple and scored on a single by Wiechmann, one of his four hits in the game.  Wayne State quickly answered in the eighth as Ciennik drove in Davis with a base hit.

Five SVSU pitchers surrendered 18 hits and seven walks.  Starter Colin Coulter (4-3) allowed eight runs on 10 hits over five innings.

Wayne State will meet Grand Valley State in the tournament final at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.  The Warriors will have to defeat the Lakers twice to claim the championship.

NOTES
The Warriors have won five straight postseason meetings against the Cardinals … WSU also eliminated SVSU from the 2011 GLIAC Tournament … Sylvester is 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA and seven strikeouts over his last four appearances (17 innings) … Kyle Vesey (Brighton, Mich.) extended his hitting streak to 14 games.