May 14, 2010
Box Score
Evansville, Ind. - #20 Grand Valley State continued their NCAA Division II Tournament on Friday night against #22 Northern Kentucky at USI Baseball Field, as senior Jared Knuth took the mound for the Lakers in only their third night game of the season. In the other two night games, the Lakers were 0-2 and allowed 28 runs. They quickly turned that around with a dominating 7-1 victory over the Norse.
GVSU jumped out to an early lead in the top of the second inning, as Andrew Trepel extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a one-out single to the left field gap. Steve Anderson followed by smacking his team-leading ninth homerun of the year off the top of the wall in left-center field on a 1-1 pitch, right above the 377-foot sign to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead.
The Lakers threatened again in the top of the third, placing runners at first and third with only one out, but a strikeout and groundout got the Norse out of trouble. In the top of the fourth, GVSU did it again, placing runners at first and third, but again Northern Kentucky got out of it with a strikeout to keep the lead 2-0 for the Lakers.
The Norse got their first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth, as Evan McDole shot a two-out double down the left-field line. That started a rally for Northern Kentucky, as a walk and a double off Cory Maguire's glove at first got NKU their first run of the game and placed runners at second and third. A Knuth strikeout of Larry Pempek got the Lakers out of the jam with a 2-1 lead as they went to the fifth inning.
In the top of the sixth, Torre Aguirre came up with yet another huge hit in this tournament, picking a great time to hit his first career triple. Aguirre drove one to deep right-center field that bounced off the wall, scoring Anderson who had singled in the at-bat before, giving the Lakers a 3-1 lead. The other hero from Thursday, Zach Laupp, followed that up with a single off the pitcher, scoring Aguirre from third to give GVSU a 4-1 lead.
The Norse looked like they would mount a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, as they loaded the bases with two out, but Knuth forced a pop-up into left field by the pinch-hitter to keep the lead at 4-1 for the Lakers.
Grand Valley State made them pay in the top of the seventh inning, as Cody Grice led off the inning with his first hit of the tournament, number 95 on the year, and was moved to second on a Chris Rudenga sacrifice. That was followed by a Kyle Gendron double to the right field gap that scored Grice to give the Lakers a 5-1 lead. After Maguire moved Gendron to third on a grounder to the right side, Trepel came up with yet another hit, as he lined one up the middle to score Gendron and push the lead to 6-1.
The Lakers kept the pressure on in the top of the eighth, as a Grice single up the middle loaded the bases with one out, and a Rudenga sacrifice fly to left-center field scored Aguirre from third, making it a 7-1 lead.
In the top of the ninth, Maguire put himself at the top of the record books at Grand Valley State University, as a single to right field made him the school's career leader in total bases, with 349.
Knuth (6-2) got the huge win for the Lakers, throwing a career-high nine innings and allowing only five hits, one run, and three walks while striking out seven. Anderson led the way on offense for the Lakers, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, two RBI, and his ninth homerun of the year. Aguirre was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI, while Grice, Rudenga, and Trepel each had two hits.
Grand Valley State (36-14) will face #1-seeded Southern Indiana (45-12) at 12 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, May 15) in the first game of the championship series in the winner's bracket.
