March 17, 2012
Game One Box Score (5-1 W)
Game Two Box Score (6-1 W)
Urbana, Ohio - The #11 Grand Valley State baseball team fanned 21 batters in Saturday's (Mar. 17) doubleheader sweep (5-1, 6-1) at Urbana, including a milestone for senior Kyle Schepel. With a strikeout to lead off the fourth inning in game one of the doubleheader, Schepel became GVSU's all-time strikeout leader.
In game one, the Lakers scored all five of their runs in the first three innings of the contest. Junior Stephen Claypool hit a two-out single to right field and after a single by senior Steve Anderson moved him to second, sophomore Giancarlo Brugnoni singled to left field to bring in Claypool.
In the second, senior Jared Cowan hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot to left field, to push the lead to 2-0 for the Lakers.
Junior Chris Rudenga led off the top of the third with a single and moved to second on another single by Anderson. After Brugnoni walked to load the bases, senior Derrik Strzalkowski lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that allowed all the runners to advance, bringing Rudenga in to make it a 3-0 game. Freshman Kevin Zak then pushed the lead out to 5-0 with a two-RBI single to center field.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Schepel, already with four strikeouts in the game, fanned Urbana's Matt Mays to lead off the frame. With the strikeout, Schepel moved past Phil Mixter (2003-04) in to the top spot for career strikeouts at GVSU with 190. Schepel would eventually finish the game with nine punch-outs, giving him 195 for his career.
Schepel nearly had a complete game, but after Urbana was able to scratch across a run in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, junior Brad Zambron came in with two runners on and closed the door for his second save of the season and 12th in his career, moving him in to a tie for fourth on GVSU's all-time list with Tom Beard (1991-92).
Schepel (4-0) got the victory, which itself was a milestone. The win gives Schepel 26 career victories, tying him with Joe Jablonski (2008-11) for the school's all-time mark. Schepel finished the game with 6.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, no earned runs and nine strikeouts. Zambron only needed a strikeout to finish off the game.
Four Lakers had two hits in the game as Claypool, Anderson and freshman Mike Nadratowski each went 2-for-4. Cowan was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI, both off his first homer of the season. Zak finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI while Brugnoni and Strzalkowski each contributed an RBI and walk.
In game number two, the Lakers used a slow but steady pace to claim the victory, putting up a single run in each of the game's first six innings. Nadratowski led off the game with a single and stole second, then came in to score on an RBI single by Claypool. Brugnoni extended the lead to 2-0 when he led off the second inning with a home run.
Nadratowski scored again in the third inning, coming across the plate after an RBI single from Anderson. In the fourth inning, Cowan led off with a single and moved to third via a hit-by-pitch and a ground ball, then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-0 game.
Nadratowski came across the plate for the third time in the game in the top of the fifth, reaching second base on an error and moving to third on a sacrifice bunt. For the second straight inning, the Lakers scored via a wild pitch and made it a 5-0 advantage.
The scoring stopped in the sixth inning as Brugnoni led off the frame on an error by the right fielder that allowed him to go all the way to third. Cowan brought him in with a ground ball and the 6-0 spread was more than enough for senior Ryan Garman.
Urbana again pushed across a single run in the seventh inning, but Garman was able to shut the door on one of his more impressive performances.
Garman (1-2) struck out a career-high 11 batters in the performance and allowed only three hits and one run, going the distance for the complete game. On offense, four different Lakers recorded an RBI. Claypool and Anderson each went 1-for-3 with an RBI, ending Anderson's streak of multi-hit games at six but extended his hitting streak overall to 10 games. Brugnoni went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI along with his second roundtripper of the year. Cowan also finished 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Nadratowski scored three times and was 2-for-3 in the contest.
With the sweep, the Lakers move to 8-4 on the season. Urbana fell to 5-8 on the year.
The same two teams will be back in action on Sunday (Mar. 18) when they take part in another doubleheader at Blue Knights Field beginning at noon.
