MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Saginaw Valley State University softball team split its games in Melbourne, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals (7-5) dropped the first game 4-0 to Charleston (W.V.) before earning an 8-0 win over Davis & Elkins to complete the matchups.

GAME 1: Charleston (W.V.) 4 – SVSU 0

SVSU struggled to get much going on the base paths against the Golden Eagles' (9-7) defense in the 4-0 defeat. The Cardinals' best scoring opportunity came down 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth, when Jenna Morse (Bay City, Mich. / Bay City Central HS) walked with two outs to load the bases, but an infield pop-up to second base on the next at-bat halted the threat and kept the deficit at one run.

An error in the final frame put a runner on base that would score two plays later to extend the lead to 2-0. A wild pitch scored another, and an RBI ground out added a third, and the lead was pushed to 4-0, where it would remain until the final out.

Aalana Kimble (Kentwood, Mich. / East Kentwood HS) and Natalie Savage (Howell, Mich. / Howell HS) recorded hits for SVSU. Savage hit a two-out triple in the bottom of the third for another scoring opportunity for the Cardinals. Kimble (L, 4-1) got the start in the circle. She went 6.0 innings with three strikeouts while allowing seven hits and only two earned runs. Delany Conley pitched one inning of relief.

GAME 2: SVSU 8 – Davis & Elkins 0

The Cardinal bats woke up in game two as Emma Helvie (Markle, Ind. / Huntington North HS) singled to left field to bring Evelynn Rybicki (Freeland, Mich. / Freeland HS) across the plate for the early 1-0 lead. Faith Maloney (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota HS) added another with an RBI single on the next play to give SVSU an insurance run on the board.

Lillia Sherman (Millington, Mich. / Millington HS) hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Rybicki in the fifth inning, and the advantage became three runs for the Cardinals.

Maloney struck again, this time with a double to right center that scored Mya Purdy (Chelsea, Mich. / Chelsea HS). Emily Beckas (Troy, Mich. / Avondale HS) stole home with the bases loaded to up the advantage to 5-0 with one final inning to play.

Purdy added two runs with a triple to right field in the seventh inning. Beckas put the final tally up with a groundout that scored Helvie, and the Cardinals closed out the game with a three-up, three-down bottom half of the frame to win.

Maloney led offensively with two hits and two RBI. Helvie also had two hits with an RBI and a run scored. Rybicki scored twice and tallied a hit. Gabby Crumm (Sebewaing, Mich. / Unionville-Sebewaing Area HS), Lauren Evans (Schoolcraft, Mich. / Schoolcraft HS), Sherman, Purdy, and Beckas each tallied one hit. Madison Wyckoff (Zeeland, Mich. / Zeeland West HS) also tallied a hit, the first of her collegiate career.

Grace Schloop (Midland, Mich. / Midland HS) (W, 1-0) started in the circle for SVSU. She went the full 7.0 innings pitched and struck out three batters in the shutout win.

UP NEXT: The Cardinals play Bridgeport at 10:00 a.m. (ET), and Cedarville at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow (March 5) before getting Friday off.