March 20, 2014
Box Score
ADRIAN, Mich. - The Grand Valley State baseball team, ranked 26th in the latest Collegiate Baseball News poll, got a spectacular pitching performance from senior Sean Clancy during a 4-0 victory over Hillsdale to begin GLIAC play on Thursday (Mar. 20) at Adrian College's Nicolay Field.
The Lakers are now 10-5 overall on the season and 1-0 in the conference, while Hillsdale falls to 2-13 overall with an 0-1 mark in the GLIAC.
GVSU will be back in action on Friday (Mar. 21) to begin a three-game series against Wayne State with a doubleheader. The first game is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Davenport University's Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex. The series, which was previously scheduled to be at the GVSU Baseball Field, have been moved to Davenport's turf field due to unplayable conditions in Allendale. The third and final game of the series, a nine-inning affair, will take place on Saturday (Mar. 22) at 11 a.m.
The Lakers put runners on third in the second, third and sixth innings, but could not push a run across. It took until the seventh for GVSU to break through, beginning with a lead-off walk from Mike Nadratowski. Jesse Abel followed with a double to right field, his third of the season, that put two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Kevin Zak then delivered the first run of the game, grounding out to short to bring Nadratowski in to score. The Chargers were able to escape the jam with only that run across, however.
In the bottom of the eighth, Hillsdale threatened, posting a two-out rally with a walk, wild pitch, error and a hit by pitch to load the bases. Clancy was able to induce a pop-up back to the mound to escape the jam and hold the 1-0 lead.
The Lakers got insurance runs in the top of the ninth, all with two outs. After the Chargers got the first two batters out, Zak reached on a fielding error and stole second, then Giancarlo Brugnoni followed by reaching on a throwing error as well and Zak came in to score to make it a 2-0 game.
After Brugnoni stole second to put himself in scoring position, Jamie Potts walked and Aaron Overbeck capitalized, driving a ball back up the middle of the field to bring Brugnoni in for a 3-0 lead. A walk by Taylor Banks loaded the bases and then Stuart Eisler took a four-pitch walk to push another run across, making it a 4-0 game.
With Clancy departing after eight shutout innings, Chris Ripple came in and closed the door on the game, preserving the 4-0 victory for the Lakers.
Clancy (2-0) twirled a gem to earn his second victory, allowing only two hits and three walks with three strikeouts in eight shutout innings and 108 pitches. Ripple struck out one in his inning of relief.
Zak and Brugnoni each went 1-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI, while Overbeck was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Banks went 2-for-3 with two walks.
