ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Grand Valley State baseball team gave its seniors a victory during their final game on home turf, winning 6-4 against Malone on Sunday (May 4) afternoon. The Laker pitching staff carried a one-hitter in to the ninth inning and struck out 10 batters in the contest.
The victory moves the Lakers to 33-11 overall with a 24-6 record in the GLIAC. Malone ends its season with an 18-31 record and a 13-20 mark in the conference.
GVSU will now await word on who its opponent will be in the first round of the 2014 GLIAC Baseball Tournament. The Lakers will begin the tournament on Thursday (May 8) at Grady's Field in Xenia, Ohio. More information about the tournament will be available here on gvsulakers.com as it becomes available. The Lakers will be the No. 1 seed in the tournament by virtue of winning the GLIAC regular season championship.
The Lakers turned five of the game's six runs in during the first three innings, getting off to a hot start. In the bottom of the first, it was a two-out rally that began with an error that put Kevin Zak on. After stealing second and moving to third on another error, Giancarlo Brugnoni crushed a knuckling line drive to the short stop that was misplayed, allowing Zak to score and put the Lakers up 1-0.
In the bottom of the second, the Lakers did all their damage with no outs, as Eric Hess was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and moved to third on singles by Taylor Banks and Ariel Aracena-Sanchez. With the bases loaded, Stuart Eisler hit a ground ball to the short stop, but beat the play out at first on the double play turn, as Hess scored to make it 2-0. With runners on the corners, the Lakers attempted a double steal, and it worked out in their favor as Banks came in to score as Eisler was being tagged out at second to make it a 3-0 game.
GVSU scores two more in the bottom of the third with help from passed balls and wild pitches by Malone, as Brugnoni scored on a passed ball and Banks hit an RBI single that scored Aaron Overbeck, who singled deep in the hole at short earlier in the inning.
With a 5-0 lead, senior starting pitcher Sean Clancy continued to roll, turning in one of the best pitching performances of his career on senior day. Clancy would wind up earning the victory after allowing only one hit in five innings of work, the lone single coming in the top of the first inning. Clancy moves to 7-0 on the year and struck out four in the contest.
Malone was able to get on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh with a single run to make it 5-1, but GVSU responded with a run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Dalton Reust that scored Mitchell Kozlowski.
Malone pushed three more runs across in the top of the ninth, but the Lakers were able to nail down the 6-4 victory to end the regular season on a nine-game winning streak.
In carrying a one-hitter in to the ninth inning, the Laker bullpen threw the last four innings of the game. Kevin Hallberg, Patrick Kelly, Chris Ward and Dan Saier combined for 3.1 innings of no-hit relief, while Chris Ripple got the final two outs of the contest.
Brugnoni (2-for-3) and Banks (2-for-4) were the only Lakers with multiple hits, and they both scored once and drove in a run. Brugnoni also stole his fourth base of the season in the game.
