May 7, 2011

Box Score

Midland, Mich. - After a pair of pitcher's duels on Friday in its first two games of the GLIAC Tournament, Grand Valley State tried to survive an offensive slugfest on Saturday (May 7), but was unable to overpower Wayne State, falling to the Warriors 10-6 in 10 innings. The Lakers led 4-1 in the top of the seventh, but WSU connected for back-to-back homers to take the lead before GVSU knotted the score at 5-5 in the bottom of the frame. Wayne State won with five runs in the top of the 10th, eliminating Grand Valley State from the tournament.

On Friday afternoon, GVSU defeated Northwood and fell to Tiffin, both games that featured 2-1 final scores. The Lakers tallied just six hits in the two games, but held their two opponents to just eight base hits in going 1-1. In Saturday's elimination game, Grand Valley State and WSU combined for six homers, 16 runs, and 33 base hits in a 2-hour, 10-minute contest.

The Lakers are 38-14 overall after the loss, which knocked them out of the conference tournament. Wayne State improves to 30-24-1 and faces Ferris State in another do-or-die game as two of the four teams left. Both teams will await their postseason fate, as GVSU was the Midwest Region's fourth seed in the latest rankings, while Wayne State slotted 10th. The top eight teams will advance to the regional tournament next weekend (May 13-15) at a pair of sites to be determined.

Grand Valley State wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard on Saturday against the Warriors. Shortstop Briauna Taylor smoked a line drive solo homer to left field in the bottom of the first inning for the game's first run. The Lakers added two more tallies in the bottom of the third, which started on a double to right field from junior Maggie Kerrigan. She moved to third on a sacrifice and scored on a bloop single to left center from Taylor, who was thrown out at second base trying to stretch the single into a two-bagger. It appeared Taylor got underneath the tag, but she was called out.

That call was big, as sophomore Katie Martin immediately followed with a home run down the left field line to make the game 3-0. It was her 20th roundtripper of the season, leaving her one homer shy of tying Kim Biskup's GVSU and GLIAC record for home runs in a year.

Wayne State got on the scoreboard in the fifth, as Nikki Fulton tagged a lead-off solo homer that went down the left field line, almost similar to Martin's blast. GVSU re-upped the lead to three runs at 4-1 on a run-scoring single from GLIAC Freshman of the Year Miranda Cleary, who punched a single to left field with the bases loaded, after Wayne State intentionally walked Martin. With one out and the bases still juiced, WSU got out of the jam with a fielder's choice and a foul out in what could have been a huge inning for the Lakers.

The Warriors threatened in the top of the sixth inning, trailing 4-1. WSU put a pair of runners on base (first and second) with two outs and Fulton hit a soft liner near second base. Taylor came over from shortstop and made a diving, tumbling catch to end the frame. The runners may not have scored on the play, as Taylor may have kept the ball in the infield, but her catch ended the scoring threat.

Junior righthander Andrea Nicholson was cruising all the way into the seventh inning. She did not allow an earned run in 13.1 innings in the circle on Friday and had given up just the solo homer on Saturday, but Wayne State pushed through on its final at-bat. After a soft pop-up left runners at first and second with two outs, up came last year's GLIAC Player of the Year, Alison Allen. She connected on a Nicholson offering that just cleared the fence in left field for a two-out, three-run blast, knotting the game at 4-4.

Despite being three runs down and one out away from the end of the game, not only did WSU tie the game at 4-4, the Warriors took the lead on the next batter. Clean-up hitter Brittany Omelanchuk followed Allen's blast with one of her own, to almost the exact same spot over the left field wall, both of which were just out of the reach of GVSU left fielder Brittany Taylor. Wayne State now led, 5-4.

Leading off the bottom of the seventh, Briauna Taylor drilled a ball off the upper half of the wall in left center field, just missing out on a game-tying home run and having to settle for a single since she hit the ball so hard. After Martin and Cleary were retired, moving Taylor to second base, junior Carli Raisutis delivered a clutch two-out double to left field, scoring Taylor for the game-tying run.

The Lakers hoped they weren't finished, however. Right fielder Emily Jones, who accounted for the game-winning homer in Friday's win over Northwood and the team's only hit (an RBI double) against Tiffin, drilled a single off the WSU third baseman's glove, which moved pinch runner Maggie Kopas to third base, putting runners on the corners. Brittany Taylor was then intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs for sophomore Kayleigh Bertram. She hit a soft liner to third base, ending the threat and sending the game to extra innings.

Both teams had two hits apiece in the eighth inning, but neither team scored. After sophomore Nellie Kosola notched a one-out single, Martin came up and hit a pop-up in the infield that somehow fell between three Warrior defenders for a strange bloop single. It was her 81st hit of the season, which broke the tie with Biskup (80 hits in 1999) for the most hits ever in a single season at Grand Valley State.

Both Kosola and Martin would be stranded on base, however, and neither team scored in the ninth inning, despite each team recording a hit.

In the 10th, Wayne State blew the game open. Due to the international tiebreaker rule, the Warriors started the inning with a runner on second base. That runner, Rebecca Stanley, scored on a one-out single to center field and WSU used a run-scoring single from Logan White to move ahead 7-5. Two batters later, Allen drove a Hannah Santora offering to dead center field that cleared the fence for her second three-run homer of the game and a 10-5 Warrior lead.

The Lakers would get just one run in the bottom of the frame, as Kosola notched a sacrifice fly after Kerrigan's second double pushed Bertram (the international tiebreaker runner) to third base. But Wayne State escaped the inning and advanced in the tournament.

Santora took the loss, falling to 10-3 on the season. She gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits in 3.1 innings in the circle. Nicholson allowed five runs (all earned) on eight hits in 6.2 innings, walking one and striking out one. WSU's Lauren McLaughlin (17-10) got the win despite allowing six runs (five earned) on 16 hits in pitching all 10 innings.

Briauna Taylor went 4-for-6 with a homer, two runs scored, and two RBI, while Jones went 4-for-5 with a double and three singles. Kosola (an RBI) and Kerrigan (two doubles) each went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Martin was 2-for-5 with the homer and an RBI.