LANSING, Mich. - The 2024 season came to an end for the Davenport baseball team on Saturday night with a 14-2 loss against top-seeded Saginaw Valley State in the GLIAC Tournament. The Cardinals will now advance to the championship Sunday, but will need to beat Grand Valley State twice in order to win the tournament.
Davenport got the board in the top of the first inning as two batters in it was 1-0.
Michael Tchavdarov singled up the middle and then
Connor Hnilo doubled down the left field line as Tchavdarov scored from first. SVSU answered with four two-out runs in the bottom of the first and never trailed again. Reed Raymond had a RBI double to right field and Austin Cicerone plated two runs on a single up the middle. The fourth run was scored on a throwing error by
Logan Todd off the bat of Lucas Mead.
Josh Robinson had a RBI in the third inning as he reached on a fielder's choice and hustled down the line to beat out a double play. The game's biggest play occurred with the bases loaded in the third as
Anthony Aloisio and
Xander Reisbig walked with two outs and Robinson moved to third. On a 3-2 pitch,
Coltrane Rubner was robbed on a called third strike outside the zone which ended the inning. The Panthers kept it close by stranding two Cardinal base runners in the third inning as
Tyler McKinstry was pitching a good game. Steven Hecht who started for the Cardinals exited with two outs in the sixth inning as his team leading 4-2.
Chase Kemp was on second and Rubner was on third when Chase Gruno entered to pitch. He left an 0-2 pitch over the plate and
Carson Price drove the ball onto the warning track in left center field just missing the tying hit.
The Cardinals then broke it open in the bottom of the sixth with five runs on four hits. McKinstry left in the sixth with runners on first and second and
Cade Kontny came in to get the second out as both runners moved into scoring position. Austin Schweiger had a bloop double into center field as Tchavdarov dove and nearly made the catch for a 6-2 lead.
Jack Snow entered for Kontny and uncorked a wild pitch on his first pitch. Raymond then singled home Schweiger for a 7-2 lead. Cicerone doubled down the left field line and the game was put out of reach as Mead grounded to shortstop and Todd made a throwing error to allow two more runs to score for a 9-2 advantage.
SVSU added five more runs in the bottom of the seventh with
Ian Dixon,
Jared Schwartz, and
Isaac Van Dyke getting into pitch. The Panther bullpen had a rough day going 2.2 innings and allowing six hits and six earned runs with five walks and just one strikeout. McKinstry (1-5) went 5.1 innings and allowed eight hits and five earned runs with three walks and one strikeout. The Cardinal bullpen tossed 3.1 scoreless innings allowing two hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Hnilo went 2-for-5 with a double and RBI in his final game. Tchavdarov also went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. The season ends with a record of 20-34 for the Panthers. At the conclusion of the tournament, the All-Tournament Team was selected as Hnilo, Tchavdarov and
Carson Fischer represented the Panthers.
