March 14, 2009

Box Score

Urbana, Ohio - Grand Valley State pushed its winning streak to four games and won its first game outside of Florida, as it defeated Lake Erie, 4-0, on Saturday afternoon (Mar. 14). The Lakers joined three other teams at the Urbana Blue Knight Invitational in Urbana, Ohio and will play a doubleheader on Sunday.

After playing 14 contests at the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla. from Feb. 28 to Mar. 8, GVSU owned a 9-5 record. Saturday's win over Lake Erie was the Lakers' first game since returning home from the spring break trip.

Junior Breanne Kronberg provided the GVSU offense with a two-run homerun in the first inning, which proved to be all the Lakers would need. Freshman pitcher Andrea Nicholson (2-1) tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout and kept the Storm from doing much damage on the basepaths. Nicholson allowed one walk and struck out five Lake Erie batters.

Grand Valley State would further its lead with a run in both the second and fifth innings, with senior Becky Rudenga knocking a solo homer for the Lakers. Kronberg capped the scoring with an RBI groundout for the final tally of the game, as she tallied a 2-for-3 day with three of the four GVSU runs batted in.

After the opening day of play, Lake Superior State is 2-0, GVSU is 1-0, host Urbana is 0-1, and Lake Erie is 0-2. On Sunday, Grand Valley State takes on Lake Superior State at 11:00 a.m. and will face Urbana at 1:00 p.m.