CALEDONIA, Mich. - The baseball team completed the four-game sweep over Saginaw Valley State on Saturday with a 9-4 victory. DU sees their overall record move to 29-11 and they are also 15-1 in the GLIAC. The team won their 11th straight GLIAC contest and outscored the Cardinals 38-15 in the series. The offense was on point with a .331 team batting average, while limiting the Cardinals to a .254 team batting average in the series.
The Panthers scored early once again as
Xander Reisbig reached on an error with two outs in the first and
Michael Tchavdarov scored the unearned run. The Cardinals tied the game in the second, but DU responded with three runs in the bottom half of the second.
Sam Clay had a RBI single,
Coltrane Rubner had a sacrifice fly, and Tchavdarov had a RBI single in the inning.
SVSUÂ got one run back in the fourth as Ethan Scheib had a sacrifice fly. Rubner lifted his second sacrifice fly of the game in the fourth inning to get that run back. Saginaw Valley State had a golden opportunity in the fifth inning as they loaded the bases with no outs.
James Geshel however got out of the jam. He struck out Grant Richardson and then got a double play on a fly ball to left and Tchavdarov fired back to second base to get Lucas Mead.
DU tacked on a run in the fifth to lead 6-2 as a failed pickoff attempt at first base with two outs allowed Reisbig to score from second base.
Colton Blankstrom relieved Geshel to start the sixth and would retire the first nine batters he faced.
Justin Johnson had a RBI single in the sixth and added two more runs in the eighth. Reisbig had a RBI single and then later scored on a wild pitch.
Tchavdarov, Johnson, Reisbig, and
Dylan Pawenski all went 2-for-5 at the plate. Rubner collected two RBI and walked twice. The Panthers stole five bases as Clay had two.
Chase Kemp was hit by a pitch three times to tie a single-game record at Davenport. He scored two runs and also had a single. Geshel got the win (4-2) in five innings of work and struck out four Cardinals. Blankstrom finished the final four innings and got his second save. He allowed two runs with no walks and four strikeouts.
The Panthers will now face Hillsdale on Tuesday, Apr. 22 at 6 PM in their home finale of 2025.
