March 9, 2009

Box Score

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Senior Bobby Walmsley hit his team-leading third home run of the season and Grand Valley State defeated Quincy 10-4 at Chain of Lakes Park on Monday. The No. 5 Lakers are now 11-2 on the season and will play the last game of their spring trip against C.W. Post at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 10.

Senior Josh Hillyard went 3-for-5 with two runs batted in and a stolen base and is now batting .559 in 12 games this year. Fellow senior Casey Robrahn finished 2-of-4 with a two doubles, a run and an RBI. Freshman Cody Grice also hit .500 while driving in two with a double. GVSU scored 10 runs on 16 hits and committed six errors, while the Hawks scored four runs on 12 hits with two errors.

On the mound, junior Brad Raj (1-1) earned the win with seven strong innings. He gave up nine hits and two runs, only one earned, with six strikeouts and one walk. Sophomore Josh Johnson, senior David Bowman and junior Jared Knuth all pitched in the final two innings to help close the game.

Runs in the first and second innings put the Lakers ahead by two in the early going. In the first, junior Kyle Gendron led off with a double to right-center and went to third on a single by Hillyard. Robrahn's sacrifice fly plated the second baseman for the first run of the game. Walmsley extended the lead to 2-0 with a shot over the left-field fence with two outs in the top of the second.

Raj's major run support came in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Grand Valley State recorded three runs, starting with an RBI-double by Gendron that sent senior Scott Cain home. Hillyard followed that with a single to left-center field that plated another two runs and made the score 5-0. In the fifth inning, Grice accounted for both Laker runs when his double down the left-field line scored senior Dan Anstedt and junior Cory Maguire.

Quincy scored runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings to cut the lead to 7-2 before Grand Valley State got back on the scoreboard in the top half of the eighth. After the first two batters recorded outs, the Lakers went to work. Robrahn started with a double to right-center and Maguire singled through the left side to score him. Maguire scored on a single up the middle by Cain and senior Ben Knuth scored GVSU's final run of the day on a single by Anstedt to make the score 10-2. Quincy notched two runs in the final half of the ninth to close the scoring at 10-4.