SVSU Secures Back-to-Back NCAA Baseball Berths

May 15, 2001

UNIVERSITY CENTER - The Saginaw Valley State University Baseball team has won their second straight GLIAC title and will advance to play in the NCAA Division II North Central Regional Baseball Tournament May 17-19.

The tournament will be located at Greyhound Park in Indianapolis, IN and will be hosted by the number one seed University of Indianapolis. The tournament will be a four team double elimination event. SVSU comes into the tournament as the number two seed and will face the third seeded Cougars of Southern Illinois University on Thursday at 3p.m.

The winner of the regional tournament will advance to the NCAA Division II finals in Montgomery, AL on May 26 - June 2.

Offensively the Cardinals are tied for seventh place in the nation with a .358 batting average. This is in large part to the performances of junior outfielder Jay Scott (Berlington Ontario/Aldershot) and freshman Adam Piggot (Sarnia Ontario/Sarnia Collegiate) who are both in their first seasons as Cardinals.

Scott is currently ranked first in the GLIAC in batting average and eleventh in the nation with .464. Piggot is currently ranked second in the GLIAC with an average of .448 which is good enough for sixteenth place in the nation.

All-American second baseman Jason Valenzuela (Ontario, CA/Damien) is having another solid year batting .375 and ranked 14th nationally in stolen bases with a per game average of .60.

The Cardinals defense this season is currently ranked first in the GLIAC and eleventh in the nation with a fielding percentage of .9626.

The Cardinal pitching this season is led by senior All-American left hand pitcher Tim Goheen (Proton Station/Ontario) and sophomore right hander Scott Corby (Sarnia Ontario/Sarnia Collegiate).

Goheen has managed this year to take over the top spots in many of the career pitching categories including, Starts (41), Victories (25), Complete Games (21), Innings (250.2) and Hits (247). Goheen still holds single season marks in the following categories, Victories (11), Innings (83.1) and Complete Games (10). Goheen is currently ranked first in the GLIAC and 48th in the nation with an era of 2.85.

Corby in only his second season as a Cardinal has not gone unnoticed. Last season he was able to set SVSU records in starts (13) and strikeouts with (78) while carrying a 3.53 era and a 6-1 season record. This season Corby has picked right up where he left off finishing at 11-1. The 11 wins puts him in a tie for victories in a season as a Cardinal pitcher with Goheen. Corby's win total led the GLIAC this season and currently puts him in a tie for 15th place in the nation.

This season the Cardinals record is 37-11 overall and 23-6 in GLIAC play.

The Cardinal's will be leaving at 6p.m. today from the Ryder Center.