April 3, 2011
Box Score
Ashland, Ohio - #4 Grand Valley State finished a game Sunday morning that spanned two days, getting suspended in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday (Apr. 2) due to inclement weather. The Lakers ultimately came out on top 16-7 over GLIAC rival Ashland and tallied a season-high 18 hits. GVSU also matched a team record by smacking eight doubles in the game. It's the most runs that the Lakers have scored against Ashland since May 7th, 2004 when GVSU won a 16-2 game over the Eagles.
The Lakers jumped all over Ashland early, putting up single runs in the top of the first and second innings. Paul Young had a one-out double to right field in the first and a Cody Grice single put runners on the corners. Steve Anderson then hit a sacrifice fly to bring Young in, giving the Lakers an early 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, it was two-out hits that pushed another run across for the Lakers. Two-out singles by Giancarlo Brugnoni and Zach Laupp put two men on and a Cory Phillips double to right field brought Brugnoni in to make it a 2-0 game.
The top of the third inning is when the Lakers blew the game open, putting up a nine spot. After a pop-up to the lead-off hitter, Grice stepped to the plate and smacked his first homerun of the year to make it a 3-0 game. After Anderson singled and then moved to third on two Ashland errors, Derrik Strzalkowski walked to put runners on the corners for Andrew Trepel who singled into right field to make it a 4-0 game and put runners at second and third as Trepel advanced on the throw. A Brugnoni RBI single moved everyone up and made it a 5-0 game. Another single, this time by Laupp, scored Trepel to make the score 6-0. Phillips then singled to the shortstop to load the bases with only one out. Junior Garrett Yatch then hit a ball at the second baseman that resulted in an error, scoring two and putting Yatch at second and and Phillips on third with an 8-0 lead. After an Ashland pitching change, the Eagles got a quick out to inch closer to getting out of the inning, but after an intentional walk to Grice to load the bases, Anderson made them pay with a bases-clearing double down the left field line to make it an 11-0 game after three innings.
Ashland had a big inning of their own in the bottom of the fifth, putting five runs up to the lead to 11-5. The Lakers responded with a run in the top of the sixth as a Phillips RBI single brought in Brugnoni who had doubled earlier in the inning. GVSU kept piling on the runs in the top of the seventh that began with two straight walks, one to Chris Rudenga and one to Grice. A Blake Batteast RBI double brought Rudenga in to make it a 13-5 game and a Torre Aguirre pinch-hit two-RBI double made it a 15-5 game. The Lakers tacked on one more run with a Laupp RBI double that scored Aguirre to make the score 16-5.
A walk, hit by pitch, strikeout and another walk loaded the bases for Ashland in the bottom of the seventh before the game was halted at 4:05 pm due to inclement weather. The game was officially suspended at 5:35 pm and didn't resume again until 11:07 am on Sunday (Apr. 3). A sacrifice fly and RBI single put two runs on the board for Ashland before the Lakers shut the game down to take the 16-7 victory.
Senior Joe Jablonski (4-0) got the win for GVSU, going five innings and striking out one while allowing nine hits and five runs. Phillips was 4-for-4 in the game with one run, two RBI and two doubles giving him a team-leading seven on the season. Brugnoni was 3-for-5 with three runs scored and an RBI including his first double of the season. Laupp also hit his first double of the year and finished the day 3-for-4 with one run and two RBI. Anderson was 2-for-3 with one run and four RBI, which led the way for the Lakers. Grice 2-for-3 with three runs, one RBI off his first homer of the year and two walks. As a team, the Lakers struck out only once in the game against an Ashland squad that was leading the GLIAC in strikeouts as a pitching staff.
The Lakers are now 16-2 on the season with a 5-0 mark in GLIAC play.
The two teams started their scheduled Sunday doubleheader immediately following the finish of this suspended game.
