CALEDONIA, Mich. - The Davenport baseball team had to sit through over a two-hour weather delay during game 2 on Friday, but despite a long day, it was a pair of wins over Saginaw Valley State to extend their GLIAC win streak to 10 and improve them to 28-11 overall and 14-1 in the conference. In game 1, the Panthers scored five times through three innings and then held on for a 5-3 victory. DU handed Jack Decker his first loss of the season (8-1) as he gave up five earned runs to tie his season high of allowed earned runs in a game. He allowed those five runs on nine hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. Decker came into the game ranked second in the GLIAC in strikeouts and now has 60.
The Cardinals scored first in the first inning as Lucas Mead had a one-out RBI single to left center. The Panthers answered right back in the first and it took just two batters to gain the lead.
Sam Clay singled to shortstop and then
Coltrane Rubner hit his second home run of the season. The long ball cleared the batter's eye in straight-away center field.
Michael Tchavdarov followed with a triple (19th career) and
Justin Johnson hit a sacrifice fly to right for a 3-1 lead.
Adam Berghorst held the Cardinals over the next two innings and stranded the bases loaded in the third inning. DU extended their lead to 4-1 in the third as
Xander Reisbig had a RBI single to score Johnson.
Cody Hultink followed with a RBI double to left to score Reisbig for a 5-1 lead. SVSU got two runs back in the fourth off Berghorst. Ethan Scheib whistled a triple with one out to score Brady Carpenter with one out after Carpenter was hit by a pitch. Scheib then scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-3.
Brandon Skorupski relieved Berghorst in the fourth inning after the wild pitch and then went to work. He finished the fourth and then retired the Cardinals in order in the fifth. He stranded a leadoff single by Connor Cornwell in the sixth and then got out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh. Mead and Buck Snabes singled with one out, but Skorupski got a strikeout of pinch hitter Steve Getts for the second out. After an error loaded the bases, Ryan McCartan flied out to left center to end the game.
Clay finished the game 3-for-4 with three singles and scored a run. Rubner drove in two runs on his first inning home run. Reisbig went 2-for-3 with a run and RBI. Berghorst went 3.1 innings and allowed three runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Skorupski got the win (3-2) by finishing the final 3.2 innings and allowing no runs on four hits with no walks and four punchouts.
The second game was pretty unpredictable as 38 minutes were played before a lightning strike in the area and subsequent rain led to a two-hour delay in the bottom of the third. Clay had a RBI infield single to score
Chase Kemp who reached on a throwing error. Rubner then grounded out and the game was halted with two outs and Clay on second base.
After the lengthy delay, play began again at 8:03 PM and the Cardinals decided to replace starting pitcher JJ Arbini with Daniel Wilcome. Saginaw Valley State tied the game in the fourth against Davenport starter
Austin VanderMarkt who came back to pitch after the delay. Ryan Jarvis doubled down the left field line to start the inning and later scored on a throwing error off the bat of Mead. Wilcome ran into problems in the sixth after 2.1 solid innings. He walked Johnson, Hultink, and
Dylan Pawenski to load the bases with one out. Kemp stepped up with a double to the wall in left field to score Johnson and Hultink for a 3-1 lead.
Logan Todd followed with a two-RBI single to left as Pawenski and Kemp scored for the 5-1 lead.
Conor Gausselin entered for VanderMarkt in the seventh and would finish the game. He allowed a leadoff double on the first pitch he threw, but then stranded the runner after a groundout and a pair of strikeouts. DU added three runs without a hit in the seventh for an 8-1 lead. The first two batters were hit by a pitch from Jacob Bardwell and Drew Cooper entered and proceeded to throw 11 straight balls as Hultink walked and Pawenski walked both on four pitches. Kemp had a RBI on a fielder's choice and Hultink scored on a wild pitch.
Gausselin yielded a run in the eighth as Jarvis doubled and came home with two outs on a single by Mead. DU added two more runs in the eighth as Johnson unloaded on a no-doubt home run to left after a Tchavdarov single against Ethan Marshall for his seventh homer of the season. Gausselin stranded two runners in the ninth and struck out Scheib to end the game.Â
VanderMarkt improved to 5-0 on the mound by going six innings and allowing one run on three hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Gausselin went three innings and allowed one run on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Wilcome took the loss (0-2) and went three innings while allowing four runs and four hits with five walks and four strikeouts. Kemp drove in three runs in game 2 and Hultink tied a single-game record with four walks and scored twice. Pawenski walked three times and scored once. Johnson went 1-for-2 with three runs scored and two walks.
The two teams will conclude their weekend series on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
