May 11, 2007

Box Score

Midland, Mich. - Grand Valley State (41-7) picked up its second straight strong pitching performance on Friday as the Lakers claimed a 6-3 win over Mercyhurst (32-19) on the right arm of Danny Richard in the second round of the GLIAC Tournament. Richard allowed three runs in nine complete innings with five strikeouts as the Lakers advance to the GLIAC Championship to be played on Saturday, May 12 at 12 pm in Midland, Mich. at Dow Diamond.

GVSU fell behind early as Mercyhurst picked up a run in the first as the first two batters of the game reached base on a single and a walk. CF David Lough attempted to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt but Richard fielded the ball and fired to third to cut down the lead runner. After a fly out, Richard looked as if he would get out of trouble but a RBI single to center by Joe Luli made it a 1-0 contest.

Grand Valley answered with a scoring inning of its own as it took the lead after the first. Dan Skirka led off the inning with a shot to center field for a single and then moved to second when CF Pat Radde singled to right field. Spud McKenzie moved the runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt before Derek Hinke stepped to the plate. Hinke worked the count to 2-2 before ripping a single back up the middle that plated Skirka and Radde to give the Lakers a lead they would not relinquish.

Richard settled down in the second as he set Mercyhurst down in order and followed suit in the third inning. GVSU added to its lead in the bottom half of the third as the Lakers rattled off three consecutive singles. Radde led off the inning with a single to right field then advanced to second on a passed ball before scoring as Spud McKenzie drove a pitch to left field to give Grand Valley a 3-1 lead. Derek Hinke picked up his third RBI of the game as McKenzie moved to second base, on the second passed ball of the inning, before scoring on Hinke's second hit of the game.

Richard continued his dominant performance facing just four batters in the fourth before throwing a 1-2-3 fifth inning. Richard saw just four batters in the sixth before finding himself in a little trouble in the seventh. Mercyhurst led off with a single then moved to the runner to second on a sacrifice bunt. A ground out to second base moved the runner to third with two outs as Richard forced a weak popout to first baseman Cory Maguire to end the inning.

GVSU tacked on another pair of runs in the eighth as DH Casey Robrahn extended his hit streak to 14 consecutive games with a leadoff single to right field and moved to second as C Nick Smith dropped down a successful sacrifice bunt. Cory Maguire picked up the first extra-base hit for Grand Valley on the day with a double to the right field gap that scored Robrahn easily to make it a 6-1 ball game. LF Matt Nickels singled to shallow left to put runners on the corners for SS Dan Skirka. Nickels was going on first movement as Mercyhurst pitcher, Brian Espersen, picked to third and then back to first and threw the ball past the second baseman allowing Maguire to waltz in to score and Nickels to race to third. The run gave Richard a very comfortable 6-1 lead heading to the ninth inning.

Mercyhurst picked up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and then moved the runners to second and third with a groundout to Lee VanStreain at third as VanStreain made a diving stop and gunned down the runner at first. Dan Bertolini followed with a two run single to center field as Richard looked to be in trouble. The leadoff man Trey Bennett lined a ball right at Richard who caught the ball and easily doubled off Bertolini at first to end the game on just his 101st pitch of the contest.

Hinke led the Lakers at the plate by going 2-3 with the three RBIs as Radde, McKenzie, Nickels and Robrahn all chipped in two hits apiece for the Lakers. GVSU has advanced to the GLIAC Championship set to be played at 12 pm on Saturday, May 12 in Dow Diamond in Midland, Mich. The Lakers will take on Ashland who defeated Saginaw Valley State 4-3 in the second game on Friday before taking down Mercyhurst 5-3 to advance to the Championship.