May 1, 2007

Box Score

Allendale, Mich. - Grand Valley State earned its 35th win of the season on Tuesday as the Lakers took care of visting Calvin 9-0. Sophomore Eric Snyder struck out a career-high 13 batters en route to earning his second win of the year. GVSU will now travel to Midland, Mich. to take on Northwood on Wednesday in a GLIAC doubleheader scheduled to start at 2 pm.

Snyder started the game with back-to-back strikeouts and was aided by a highlight reel catch by LF Scott Cain as he retired the Knights in order in the first. The Lakers would be set down one-two-three in their half of the first before Snyder returned to the mound striking out three batters in the inning while allowing a lone single. GVSU put three runs on the board in the bottom of the second inning as eight batters stepped to the plate in the inning.

Derek Hinke led things off with a walk and moved to third on one of LF Scott Cain's three hits on the afternoon. With runners at second and third 3B Brad Raj grounded out to short to score the game's first run. 2B Dan Delamielleure followed with a base on balls to put runners at the corners. After a strikeout, DH Jesse Barfelz was struck by a pitch to load the bases for CF Matt Nickels. The junior singled to left field to plate both Cain and Delamielleure and give Grand Valley a 3-0 lead.

The three runs would be all Snyder would need in the game as he went six innings allowing five hits, no runs, and striking out 13 batters. The 13 K's were a season-high for any Laker pitcher. Snyder struck out at least two batters in five of his six innings of work and rang up three batters in both the second and fourth frames.

Fellow Elburn, Ill. native Matt Huml took to the mound in the seventh and did not allow a hit and was followed atop the hill by Alex Dawe for the eighth and Dan Delamielleure for the ninth as the three combined to hold the Knights scoreless.

The Lakers tacked on three runs in both the seventh and eighth innings for the final 9-0 tally. GVSU took advantage of three Calvin errors in the seventh inning as Lee VanStreain, Scott Cain, and Dan Delamielleure all picked up RBI singles to give Grand Valley a 6-0 lead after seven innings. The bats kept hitting in the eighth as 1B Casey Robrahn laced a double over the head of the Calvin left fielder to score two runs before Cain added his second RBI in as many innings with a shot through the right side to score Robrahn.

Grand Valley improves to 35-5 on the year with the win and will take on Northwood Wednesday in a GLIAC doubleheader in Midland, Mich. set to begin at 2 pm. The Lakers will wrap up the regular season this weekend when they host Ashland in a four game series.