April 27, 2012

Box Score

Findlay, Ohio - In the opening game of the 2012 GLIAC Softball Tournament, #20 Grand Valley State jumped to an early 4-0 lead and cruised to a 5-1 victory over Northwood on Friday morning (Apr. 27). The Lakers' Hannah Santora took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and advanced GVSU to a match-up with Ferris State on Friday afternoon.

The tournament's #1 seed, Grand Valley State had won three of four outings against eighth-seeded Northwood during the regular season. In the last meeting between the two schools, however, NU won a 14-11 slugfest in Midland, Mich. Friday's game was not nearly as offensive-based as that combined 25-run contest, as the teams totaled six runs on 13 hits.

GVSU, now 42-11 on the season, moves on to face Ferris State at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, as the fifth-seeded Bulldogs defeated fourth-seeded Ohio Dominican 6-2 in their opening game. Northwood drops to 18-27 on the season and will take on Ohio Dominican in an elimination game at roughly 2:00 p.m.

After Santora, a First Team All-GLIAC selection (which was announced after the game), went 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning, the Lakers plated a pair of runs on their first two batters. Junior Nellie Kosola, also a First Team All-GLIAC honoree, singled up the middle. That was followed by a two-run opposite field homer off the bat of sophomore Briauna Taylor to make the score 2-0. It was the 12th home run of the season for Taylor, a Second Team All-GLIAC selection, who moves into sixth place on the GVSU career list with 18 roundtrippers.

Santora again worked a perfect second inning, bringing Grand Valley State back to the plate. After the first two batters flew out to left field, Taylor ripped a single to left center field and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. First Team All-GLIAC designated player Katie Martin followed by hitting a sharp single to right field, easily scoring Taylor for a 3-0 advantage. The hit extended Martin's current hitting streak to 18 straight games, as she has a hit in 31 of her last 32 outings.

The third inning was the first frame where Santora encountered trouble. After retiring the first batter, she walked the next three Northwood hitters, loading the bases with one out. Santora dug deep and struck out Andrea Martin and induced a flyball to center field to end the Timberwolf threat.

Grand Valley State added another run in the bottom half of the frame. Junior second baseman Kayleigh Bertram hit a deep fly ball to left field that NU outfielder Brittany Merner had bounce off of her glove for a two-base error. Bertram moved to third base on a flyout to right field and then scored on a single through the left side of the infield from sophomore Miranda Cleary.

In the fourth, NU again loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a Laker fielding error. Santora got out of the jam by inducing a groundball for the third out, again leaving the bases loaded and keeping the no-hitter in tact.

Northwood went 1-2-3 in the fifth inning, but the Timberwolves started off the top of the sixth inning with a single to center field from Stacey Klonowski, ending Santora's no-hit bid. Klonowski would later score on a single from Brittany Merner and another GVSU error, but that was all the Timberwolves could muster off of Santora.

To offset Northwood's run, sophomore Tonya Calkins drilled a solo homer down the left field line in the bottom of the sixth inning for her sixth home run of the season, making the score 6-1. Calkins' blast was the Lakers' 50th home run of the season, the second-most in school history behind last year's GLIAC record of 76 homers.

Santora worked her way through the seventh inning to earn her 22nd win of the year, pushing her record to 22-3 overall. She did walk six batters, but only allowed one run on three hits. In seven innings, she struck out four batters and induced 10 groundball outs.

Taylor and senior catcher Carli Raisutis were the only players in the game with more than one hit. Taylor went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored, and a pair of RBI, while Raisutis, an All-GLIAC Honorable Mention selection, was 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.

Grand Valley State and Ferris State have played four times this season (Mar. 31-Apr. 1), with GVSU winning the first three contests before the Bulldogs took the final game of the series.