Baseball Earns Doubleheader Sweep Over Saginaw Valley

OVERVIEW – SAGINAW VALLEY

SCORES: Northwood Timberwolves 5, Saginaw Valley State Cardinals 2/Northwood 12, Saginaw Valley 8

RECORDS: Northwood 21-12, 7-7 GLIAC/Saginaw Valley 13-14-1, 7-6-1 GLIAC

LOCATION: Gerace Stadium – Midland, Mich.

RECAP: Baseball sweeps rival Saginaw Valley Friday afternoon (April 12), earning a 5-2 win in game one and a 12-8 victory in game two.

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS (SEVEN INNING GAME)

• Saginaw Valley got on the board with a solo home run in the second inning to go up 1-0.
• Northwood tied the score in the fourth thanks to a wild pitch that plated Keaton Sackett.
• After another SVSU solo homer gave the Cardinals the lead in the fifth, Northwood put together the key rally of the game in the bottom of the inning. Nick Palmer tied the score with an RBI single.
• Trevor Polewka put the Timberwolves on top with an RBI single.
• Sackett then came through with the biggest hit of the game, doubling home a pair to make the score 5-2.
• Max Bain made that lead stand up, finishing off his third straight win.

GAME ONE STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors – Northwood: 5/10/4, Saginaw Valley: 2/4/0
• Runners Left on Base – Northwood: 8, Saginaw Valley: 2
• Winning Pitcher – Max Bain (7-0): 7 IP, 4 H 2 R, BB, 3 K
• Losing Pitcher – Amani Godfrey (3-3): 4 1/3 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Sackett: 2-3, 2B, R, 2 RBIs
• Polewka: 2-3, R, RBI
• Cole Brooks: 2-3, 2B, R

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Over his last three starts, Bain has gone 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings. In that stretch, he has allowed nine hits while striking out 20.

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS (NINE INNING GAME)

• Northwood got off to a fast start in game two, thanks to a three-run homer by Brooks in the top of the first inning.
• Michael Karam extended the lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI double.
• The Timberwolves broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth inning, starting with a run on an error to make the score 5-0.
• Brooks then added two more RBIs on a single that extended the advantage to 7-0.
• Nick Palmer made it 9-0 with a two-run homer to left center.
• Sackett got NU to double figures with an RBI single to finish off a six-run fifth inning that gave Northwood a 10-0 lead.
• Brooks drove in his sixth run of the game with a single in the bottom of the fifth.
• Palmer made it 12-0 with an RBI groundout.
• SVSU battled back the remainder of the game, scoring two in the sixth, two in the seventh, one in the eighth and three in the ninth to cut the lead down to 12-8.
• The Cardinals got the tying run to the plate in the final inning before the Timberwolves closed out the win.

GAME TWO STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors – Northwood: 12/14/2, Saginaw Valley: 8/13/2
• Runners Left on Base – Northwood: 7, Saginaw Valley: 12
• Winning Pitcher – Jake Gross (6-2): 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K
• Losing Pitcher – Brandon Wise (3-3): 5 IP, 13 H, 12 R (10 ER), 2 BB, 2 K
• Save: Peter Joseph (1): 2/3 IP, H, K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Brooks: 3-5, HR, 2 R, 6 RBIs
• Palmer: 2-5, HR, 3 RBI
• Vinsky: 3-4, BB, 3 R
• McClelland: 2-4, 3 R
• Sackett: 2-5, R, RBI

UP NEXT

• Northwood and Saginaw Valley will conclude their four-game set with doubleheader Saturday (April 13). First pitch is set for 1 p.m.