March 4, 2005
Baseball
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SVSU Sweeps DH from Univ. of Charleston

FT. MYERS, Fla. - The Saginaw Valley State Cardinals improved to 5-2 on the year with a pair of wins over DII University of Charleston (WV) on Thursday from Terry Park in a twilight twinbill. The Cards trailed 3-0 after two innings in game one and scored twice in the top of the third inning to cut the deficit to one. SVSU added three more runs in the top of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. The Cards would add an insurance run in the top of the seventh and allow one run in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-4 win. In the bottom of the seventh, Charleston had the tying run on second when Ben Esparza entered the game with two outs and induced a pop-up which was caught by third baseman Justin Hanning for the final out. Esparza picked up his first save and the pitching win went to Elijah Martin. Martin threw 6.1 innings and allowed six hits with four earned runs and eight strikeouts. The Cards took advantage of four errors and stroked four hits. Jason Burghardt went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Dan Jones reached base three times with a double and two walks. He also drove in a run in the third inning.
      SVSU took the second game, 9-4, behind the bat of Dale Marsden and the pitching of Scott Schlaff. Marsden had his second multi-HR game of the season and collected five RBI. Marsden hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third and added a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth. He was 2-for-4 and now has four homers. Schlaff earned the win going six innings allowing six hits, two earned runs and striking out 11. He is 2-0 on the year. SVSU scored four times in the third and fourth innings and added a run in the sixth. Jim Kelly pitched the seventh and struck out three.

Game One, Game Two

Contact: Ryan Thompson (989) 964-4053

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