LANSING, Mich. -- Brett Zimmerman (Frankfort, Mich.) drew a bases-loaded walk, Chris Tanderys (Livonia, Mich. / Stevenson) jogged home from third and the Wayne State University baseball team (40-10 overall) snuck past Saginaw Valley State (27-24) on Friday, 2-1. Next up on Saturday at 11 a.m., the Warriors will face the winner of Friday's late game, Purdue Northwest and Grand Valley State.

Karter Fitzpatrick (Monroe, Mich. / Carleton Airport) went the distance for the eighth instance this year, this time on 120 pitches (83 strikes), while facing 35 batters and tying the program record for wins in a season (10). Fitzpatrick (10-1 overall) surrendered just one earned run on six hits with only one walk and five strikeouts. The right-handed hurler also moved up to a tie for fifth in school history for complete games in a single campaign, needing two more to tie the record.

At the plate, Saginaw Valley State struck first with a sacrifice fly to left center in the second before Wayne State evened things up seven innings later. In the home half of the seventh, CJ Maury (Brampton, Ont. / Mayfield SS) scored on a wild pitch to make the score 1-1 before the fireworks in the bottom of the ninth.

Team wise, Wayne State is the fourth GLIAC school to win 40+ games in the last 14 seasons joining Ashland in 2019 (48-15). Northwood in 2017 (46-13) and Grand Valley State in both 2012 (43-16) and 2011 (52-5).