March 6, 2011
Box Score
Lakeland, Fla. - #7 Grand Valley State (7-2) used some clutch hitting and even better relief pitching to earn the victory in a back-and-forth battle with #12 Minnesota State-Mankato (2-3) on Sunday (Mar. 6) by a score of 7-5. Junior Jacob Cox (1-0) came into the game with two runners on in the seventh inning in a tie game and shut the Mavericks down for 2.1 innings, allowing only one hit while striking out four to get the win. Juniors Cody Grice and Steve Anderson had back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the seventh to push across the game-winning run.
Mankato took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice bunt, but the Lakers rebounded quickly, scoring two in the bottom half of the frame. After Paul Young walked on four straight pitches, Grice hit a high chopper towards second base that went underneath the fielder's glove and into center field, moving Young to third. After Grice stole second, Anderson singled to left field to bring both runners home and give GVSU a 2-1 lead.
The Lakers got some insurance runs in the fifth inning, as Cory Phillips was hit by a pitch and then Garrett Yatch hit a fly ball to center field that the fielder made a diving attempt for but missed. Phillips came all the way around to score and Yatch was into third with a stand-up triple. After a groundout with the infield pulled in, Grice hit a grounder to short that the fielder threw high, and Grice was ruled safe as the first baseman was pulled off the bag, allowing Yatch to score and make it a 4-1 game.
In the top of the sixth after one quick out for Mankato, the Mavericks put together two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. A sacrifice fly cut the lead to 4-2, and two more singles pushed the next two runs across to tie the game for Mankato at four.
Chris Rudenga had the most controversial call of the day, hitting what appeared to be a go-ahead homerun over the fence in left field. The ball bounced off something beyond the fence and back into the field of play and they halted Rudenga at third base. After the umpires got together and checked out the area behind the fence, they ruled that Rudenga could trot home to put the Lakers up 5-4.
Mankato countered with a homerun of their own to lead off the top of the seventh inning, as a nine-pitch at-bat resulted in a ball being deposited down the left field line to tie the game at five.
In the bottom of the seventh, GVSU went ahead for good as Grice and Anderson hit back-to-back doubles off the same spot of the left field wall on the fly, making it a 6-5 game. A Phillips sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth that brought Dan Ponegalek in proved to be an insurance run for the Lakers as they took a 7-5 lead.
Junior Christopher Whitney started for the Lakers, going six innings, allowing six hits and four runs while striking out six. The offense was led by Anderson, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI and a double. Grice was 1-for-4 with two runs scored, a double and two stolen bases, his sixth and seventh on the year. Yatch, Phillips and Rudenga all had one RBI, Rudenga's coming off his first homerun of the season.
The Lakers will be back in action on Tuesday (Mar. 8) when they take on #15 West Chester (3-0) in Winter Haven, Fla. for a pair of seven inning games that begin at 1 p.m.
