DETROIT -- The 21st-ranked Wayne State University baseball team (24-7 overall, 8-5 GLIAC) outlasted Saginaw Valley State (17-14 overall, 7-6 GLIAC) by a score of 2-1 on Friday afternoon at Harwell field for the four-game series opener between the two squads. SVSU and WSU will play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first pitch in game one scheduled for 1 p.m.
Wayne State struck first in the opening frame after lead-off batter
Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) reached following a five-pitch walk. The next batter,
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]), proceeded to hit a ball over the green monster in left field, but failed to touch home plate and was called out, leaving the home team with just a one-run triple instead of the two-run blast.
The next inning, Saginaw Valley State tied the contest up at 1-1 with an RBI single to right field.
The score would stay like that until the bottom of the seventh when the Warriors regained the one-run advantage.
Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) got the party started with a base on balls before moving up to second thanks to
Ty Garza's (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]) sacrifice bunt.
After another walk and a strikeout, second baseman
Nick Sandiha, Jr. (West Bloomfield, Mich. / Brother Rice [Macomb C.C.]), who'd just come into the game defensively in the top of the seventh, stepped up to the plate. Sandiha, Jr. dribbled a seeing-eye single through the left side, scored Hatzigeorgiou and gave his team the lead.
Fast forward to the top of the ninth where the Cardinals had runners on second and third with only one out. SVSU's Brady Carpenter was unable to lay down a bunt on a suicide squeeze, pinch-runner Ethan Scheib was caught stealing home, and then Carpenter grounded out to third to seal it.
Gavin Nash (Howell, Mich. / Hartland) received a no decision, but was dazzling through six innings pitched. Nash gave up one earned run on three hits with only one walk, eight strikeouts and 102 pitches.
Philp Miller (Flat Rock, Mich. / Woodhaven [Schoolcraft C.C. / Tusculum]) secured the two and one-third inning victory, which improved his record to 4-0, and did so with 40 pitches. Miller surrendered just one hit with two free passes and a punchout.
Rocco Cardinale (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) then slammed the door by taking care of the last two outs, both of which were addressed above, on only eight pitches.