April 18
Baseball
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cardinals Show No Mercy To Division I Titans

DETROIT- Saginaw Valley State University's baseball team proved why it is one of the elite college baseball programs, Division II or otherwise, in a 17-7 rout of Division I Detroit-Mercy at the Campbell Complex in Detroit on Thursday. The Cards used eight runs in the eighth inning to complete the rout, scoring 17 runs for the second straight game.
     The Cardinals' balanced scoring attack came from both ends of the lineup as five different Cardinals tallied three hits as well as four separate players driving-in three runs.
      Justin Young (Flint/Kearsley) got the win for SVSU, pitching six innings, allowing three earned runs and striking-out seven batters. Joe Kramer (Linden) came on to pitch the final three innings to notch his third save of the season.
     The fireworks started in the top half of the first inning as Jay Scott (Burlington, Ont./Aldershot) walked and three singles by Sean Odamura (Mississauga, Ont.), Eric Caldwell (Cary, Ill.) and Kurt Neveau (Bay City/Central) pushed across two runs. The Cards would add two more in the fourth inning as Ryan Wilkinson (Dearborn) hit a leadoff double followed by singles from Justin Garcia (Bay City/Western) and Mike Condon (Utica) and an Odamura RBI-groundout. The Cardinals scored in every inning after that, scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, two in the seventh and eight more in the eighth inning. All eight runs in that inning scored with two men out.
     With the win, the Cardinals improve their overall mark to 21-7 (10-5 GLIAC). The Cards will return to conference play this weekend as they face Wayne State in a crucial four-game set beginning on Saturday at 1 p.m.in Detroit.

Notes:

· The Cardinals have now scored 17 runs in back-to-back games after beating Northwood 17-5 on Wednesday in game two of a double-header. The Cards have scored 15 runs or more in five contests this season.

· Piggott hit his ninth homerun of the season against UD-Mercy. He leads the Cards in homers and has 15 for his career at SVSU, one shy of tenth-best in school history. Kraig Enders holds the season record with 13 HR back in 2000. Piggott also notched his third-straight three-hit game.

· The Cardinals are 4-1 in nine-inning games with their only loss coming at the beginning of the season to St. Thomas of Miami (11-5).

· SVSU has had 69 different occurances where a Cardinal has had a multi-hit game. Odamura and Piggott lead the team with 12 apiece.

Contact: Mitch Wigness (989) 964-4933

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