April 21, 2007

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

Erie, Pa. - #4 GVSU (31-2, 19-1) picked up a pair of stellar pitching performances from Nick Beach and Danny Richard en route to a doubleheader sweep of Mercyhurst (20-14, 6-7) Saturday afternoon in Erie Pa. with a 2-1 game one win and a 6-2 game two victory. Spud McKenzie was 4-6 and drove in a pair of runs in the doubleheader for the Lakers. GVSU and Mercyhurst will meet again tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at 12 pm in Erie, Pa.

Beach took to the hill in game one looking for his seventh consecutive victory of the season. The junior right-hander started out very strong as he struck out four of the first seven batters he faced while allowing just one hit through the first two innings. Grand Valley and Mercyhurst were scoreless through the first four innings as neither team could move a runner past second base.

GVSU got on the board first as DH Casey Robrahn led off the top of the fifth with a single back up the middle. After a sacrifice bunt by Steve Strutz and a ground out by Cory Maguire, Robrahn found himself on third with two down and CF Pat Radde stepping to the plate. Radde answered with an RBI single to second base scoring Robrahn and giving the Lakers a 1-0 lead.

The Lakers added another run in the top of the sixth as they took advantage of a lead off walk to SS Dan Skirka. Lee VanStreain moved Skirka to second with a sacrifice bunt before Skirka flashed some wheels and stole third base with just one out in the inning. Spud McKenzie made it a 2-0 contest when he singled to center field scoring Skirka.

Mercyhurst cut the deficit to one in the sixth picking up an unearned run. Beach returned for the seventh inning forcing a ground out to short before picking up strikeout numbers nine and 10 of the game. Beach now owns a 7-0 record and lowered his league-leading ERA to 1.16 on the year.

Game two featured some early scoring from the Lakers as they were able to push three runs across in the top of the first, all unearned. Skirka led off the game with a walk and then advanced to second on a ground out by VanStreain. Then the wheels fell off for the Mercyhurst defense as the third baseman misplayed a bunt attempt by McKenzie allowing Skirka to score from second. Nick Smith followed with a bunt single to third base before RF Derek Hinke hit a ball that was booted by the shortstop loading the bases. Robrahn and Radde followed with back-to-back RBI singles to give GVSU an early 3-0 advantage.

GVSU added a run in the fifth as McKenzie doubled in VanStreain who led off the inning with a single. Mercyhurst finally got to starter Danny Richard in the bottom of the fifth picking up just its third hit of the game with a lead off double. Richard looked like he would get out of the jam forcing a flyout and a strikeout but a two out single cut the Laker lead to three (4-1). Mercyhurst tacked on another run in the sixth with a solo home run before GVSU added a pair of runs in the seventh as Nick Smith singled in a pair of runs for the final 6-2 margin.

GVSU has now won 18 consecutive games on the year and have been on the winning side in 47 of its last 48 GLIAC contests. Spud McKenzie led the Laker offensive attack going 4-6 on the day with two runs scored and two RBI. Smith and Radde each added a pair of RBIs in the doubleheader sweep. Richard and Beach each threw a complete game saving the bullpen for Sunday's doubleheader. Richard allowed the two runs but tied a season-high with eight strikeouts. Beach allowed the one unearned run on five hits and sat down a season-high 10 batters on strikes.

Grand Valley will play Mercyhurst at 12 pm on Sunday to wrap up the season series.