UNIV. CENTER, Mich. - After a 29-16 win in game one of the series at Saginaw Valley State, the Panther baseball team did an encore with a 28-10 win in game one of the doubleheader on Friday. Then chalk it up to baseball being a weird game sometimes as the Cardinals shook off the first two losses of the series and won 21-7 in game two. The 18-run winning margin was the most this season and the 14-run losing margin tied for the worst loss this season (15-1 at then No. 4 Nova Southeastern on March 3).

"It has been a crazy couple of days," said head coach Kevin Tidey. "I am not sure I have ever been a part of games with the wind and weather like this. It was definitely a few games where I knew we could really put some runs up and we did just that. The second game today you have to tip you cap to Hunter (Merillat). He really stuck it to us and really had a good slider going and we didn't make any adjustments to get the job done. We need to bounce back quick and win the series tomorrow."

The game one victory meant that the Panthers scored 57 runs in the first two games of the series. They had 21 hits and all 28 runs were earned runs as the Cardinals did not commit an error. Hayden Jatczak had a rough start and could not find the strike zone in the first inning. He walked the first three batters before Ben Mets had a two-run single for a 2-0 lead. Jatczak then allowed a single to Carson Eby and three more straight walks and before you knew it the score was 6-0.

Caleb Anspaugh might be one of the hottest hitters in NCAA Division II at the moment and launched a two-run homer to right in the second inning for an 8-0 lead. Derrick Edington had a 1-2-3 first inning on the bump, but then ran into trouble in the second allowing five runs. Martin Money led off with a homer to right. Reed Raymond later in the inning had a two-run double. Connor Cornwell also had a two-run single to left and the inning ended as Money struck out swinging.

Davenport responded right away in the third inning with eight runs on six hits to take a 16-5 lead. Incredibly, all eight runs were scored with two outs. Gaetano Vallone had a RBI single followed by a RBI single from Mets. Caleb Anspaugh had a two-run single to left for a 12-5 lead. Carter Troncin lasered a two-run double to left center for a 14-5 lead. Anthony Aloisio then hit his first career home run to center on a 1-0 pitch for a 16-5 lead.

The Cardinals scored three times in the third inning as Andrew Burke had a RBI single and Raymond hit a ball to first and an error allowed the seventh and eighth runs to score. Jatczak was removed to start the fourth and JJ Arbini couldn't keep the Panthers off the board. DU scored twice in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Vallone and a Mets solo homer to center for an 18-8 lead.

Edington made it through the fourth inning not allowing a run and stranded two runners on base. Dalton O'Boyle took the ball in the fifth inning and gave up two runs as Cornwell drove home both runs on a homer to right center.

Davenport scored nine runs in the sixth inning to increase their lead to 27-10. In the inning the big hits came from Noah Marcoux with a two-RBI single followed by a two-run scoring single by Carson Eby. Aloisio and Christian Petre had back-to-back sacrifice flies and Nolan Anspaugh took one deep to center for a two-run blast and the 17-run cushion.

Alex Lord pitched a scoreless sixth inning and the Panthers added one final run in the seventh. Caleb Anspaugh hit his second home run of the game for the 28th run. Logan Bursick-Harrington got the final three outs and struck out two Cardinals.

Caleb Anspaugh loved the number 5 in game one going 5-for-5 with five runs and five RBI. All of those were career highs for the catcher. Aloisio drove in a career-high four runs and Troncin also recorded four RBI. Nolan Anspaugh went 3-for-5 with four runs and two RBI. Marcoux scored three runs and walked twice. Eby finished 3-for-5 with four runs scored and two RBI. Mets drove in four runs and went 3-for-5 with four runs scored. Edington improved to 3-3 on the mound going four innings and allowed just two earned runs with five walks and three strikeouts.

Hunter Merillat solved the DU bats in game two and got his team a win. Merillat tossed seven innings and allowed just five hits. He walked three and struck out 11 Panthers. Thomas Shipley gave up three runs in the final two innings and struck out one. Jared Schwartz was strong on the mound for Davenport in the first two innings. He struck out the side in the first inning and then fanned two batters in the second inning.

SVSU scored three times in the third inning as Raymond had a RBI single followed by a RBI double by Austin Schweiger and a RBI single from Hayden Jatczak. DU scored once in the fourth inning as Caleb Anspaugh had a two-out RBI single to left but was thrown out at second base.

The game got away from the Panthers in the fourth as the Cardinals scored seven times to take a 10-1 lead. Schwartz came out in place of Spencer Vainavicz with a 4-1 score. Raymond had a two-run single to greet Vainavicz for a 6-1 lead. Schweiger had a RBI single, Jatczak walked with the bases loaded, and Todd Paperd had a two-RBI single.

Pablo Jacques gave up four runs in the fifth inning as the Cardinals now led 14-1. The Panthers scored three runs in the seventh inning. Aaron Cardoza had a RBI single followed by Troncin scoring on a passed ball and Nolan Anspaugh recording a RBI groundout.

Bursick-Harrington gave up four runs in the seventh inning and Isaac Van Dyke relieved him and got the final out. DU scored three more times in the eighth inning. Mets hit yet another homer to left center to make it 19-6 and Aloisio had a RBI single to left. SVSU scored the last two runs in the eighth as Money had a two-run scoring single off Van Dyke. 18 of the 21 runs in game two were earned. Zach Haefer was the only pitcher out of six hurlers to allow no earned runs in his 1.2 innings of work. 

Mets went 1-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base. Marcoux went 2-for-4 with a walk. Caleb Anspaugh had two more hits including a double. The two teams wrap up the series tomorrow with a 1:05 PM first pitch.