April 22, 2012
Game One Box Score (1-0 W)
Game Two Box Score (3-0 W)
Findlay, Ohio - The 11th-ranked Grand Valley State baseball team shut down the Findlay offense on Sunday (Apr. 22), tossing two shutouts (1-0, 3-0) to extend its win streak to 15 games.
In game one, much like game one on Saturday, it was pitching that was the story. This time it was senior Cory Baker (Byron Center, Mich./North Dakota) with a stellar outing. Baker worked six innings, allowing four hits and striking out a season-high 10 batters with no walks to earn the win and move to 6-1 on the season.
The seventh, however, belonged to junior Brad Zambron (Waterford, Mich./Brother Rice). Zambron worked a perfect inning of relief to earn his 11th save of the season, setting a new single-season saves record at GVSU for the second straight year. Zambron broke his own record of 10, which he accomplished last season.
With those pitching performances, the Lakers thankfully didn't need much offense as GVSU was only able to push across one run in the game. In the top of the fifth, junior Chris Rudenga (South Holland, Ill./Illiana Christian) hit a one-out single to third and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman Mitchell Kozlowski (Madison Heights, Mich./Lamphere). Freshman Mike Nadratowski (Canton, Mich./Plymouth), who saved a run in the previous inning by throwing a runner out at home, then hit a single in to right field that allowed Rudenga to come around and score to make it 1-0, which is where the game would stay.
Nadratowski finished the game 1-for-3 with an RBI, while Rudenga was 1-for-2 with a run scored. Sophomore Giancarlo Brugnoni (Grosse Pointe, Mich./De La Salle) and senior Derrik Strzalkowski (London, Ont./Kellogg C.C.) each went 1-for-2, while senior Jared Cowan (Davison, Mich.) was 1-for-3 with his team-leading 13th double of the season.
Game two was much of the same from the pitching standpoint. Junior Anthony Campanella (Carol Stream, Ill./Elgin C.C.) nearly threw the second complete game shutout of the weekend for the Lakers, tossing 6.2 innings of three-hit ball, allowing only one walk with two strikeouts and no runs to earn the victory and move to 6-1 on the season.
Campanella was supported by single runs in the first, third and seventh innings. In the first, senior Brian Robinson (Troy, Mich.) scored on a passed ball, then contributed an RBI in the third with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
Redshirt freshman Kevin Zak (Novi, Mich.) added an insurance run in the top of the seventh with an RBI single to center field and it was more than enough for the GVSU pitching.
After giving up a two-out single to put two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Campanella was lifted for Zambron, who got a fly out to earn his second save of the day and third of the weekend, giving him 12 on the year to extend his single-season record.
Robinson and Nadratowski each finished the game with two hits, a walk and a run scored, with Robinson also contributing an RBI.
It was the third shutout of the weekend for the Lakers. In the four games, the GVSU pitching staff yielded only 12 hits, one earned run and 26 strikeouts in 28 innings of work with a 0.32 ERA and a .126 batting average against.
With the sweep, the Lakers have now won 15 games in a row and 16 in a row over the Oilers.
GVSU pushes its record to 30-10 overall with a 20-6 record in the GLIAC, while Findlay falls to 14-25 on the year and 7-19 in the conference.
The Lakers will now get set to host their final home games of the season when Wayne State, currently third in the GLIAC, come to Allendale for a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday (Apr. 28-29).
