XENIA, Ohio - The Grand Valley State baseball team has won its ninth GLIAC Tournament Championship in 12 tries, beating Lake Erie by a 10-2 score on Sunday (May 11) afternoon at Grady's Field inside the Athletes in Action Sports Complex.
The victory moves the Lakers to 37-11 overall on the season, while Lake Erie falls to 31-20. GVSU will now await word on its placement in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament, where the Lakers have a chance at grabbing the number one seed and hosting the tournament. They came in to the GLIAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the regional rankings.
In what has become a season-long trend for the Lakers, the GVSU offense got on the board early and often yet again, getting all the run support they would need in the first inning.
In the bottom of the opening frame, Mike Nadratowski ripped a single to right field and moved to second when Jamie Potts drew a four-pitch walk. Kevin Zak followed with a single to left field that scored Nadratowski and put runners on the corners. Giancarlo Brugnoni, eventual tournament MVP, then came to the plate and pushed the lead to 2-0 with an RBI single up the middle. After he and Zak converted on a double steal to put two runners in scoring position for Jesse Abel, Abel hit in to a fielder's choice groundout to short that scored Zak and made it a 3-0 game.
In the bottom of the second, the Lakers poured it on as Zak came to the plate with two on, homering to left field to push the lead out to 6-0. The home run scored Nadratowski, who was hit by a pitch, and Potts, who reached on an error.
Lake Erie got on the board in the top of the fifth with a two-run homer from Peterlin that made it 6-2, but the Lakers were quick to respond, getting one run back in the bottom of the fifth on a Brugnoni home run to center field, his third in as many games.
Leading 7-2, the Lakers put more insurance runs on the board in the bottom of the seventh with an Abel RBI single and a sacrifice fly from Stuart Eisler, then got another run in the eighth on an RBI single by Nadratowski that made it a 10-2 game.
The GVSU pitching staff pieced together a four-hit performance against the Storm, beginning with Kevin Hallberg's 4.2 innings of work to start, where he allowed three hits with four strikeouts. Following him, Dan Saier (3-1), Evan Nietfeldt and Chris Ripple came in to combine for six strikeouts and one hit allowed in 4.1 innings of relief.
The offense was led by Zak, who went 3-for-4 with three runs and four RBI, including his seventh home run of the year and 14th stolen base. Brugnoni went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI, including his 16th home run of the year, the second-best single-season total in GVSU history. Nadratowski went 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, while Abel drove in two.
Following the game, Brugnoni (1B), Zak (2B), Eisler (SS), Nadratowski (OF) and Aaron Jensen (SP) were named to the 2014 GLIAC All-Tournament Team, with Brugnoni earning MVP honors for the second time in three years.
