Detroit, Mich. - In a rematch of last season's Midwest Super Regional championship, Grand Valley State pitched an 8-0 shutout over #13 Indianapolis in the opening game of the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament on Friday (May 9) in Detroit, Mich. The Lakers took a 4-0 lead after three innings and used a stellar pitching effort from junior Lauren Gevaart to earn the victory.
Sixth-seeded GVSU moves to 30-12 with the win, while Indianapolis, the three seed, falls to 42-12. In the tournament's opening game between GLIAC counterparts, Wayne State topped Ashland by a 3-0 final. That pits Grand Valley State against Wayne State on Saturday morning (May 10) at 11:00 a.m., with the winner advancing to Sunday's (May 11) championship game. Ashland and Indianapolis will follow at 1:30 p.m. in an elimination contest.
Last season, the Lakers traveled to then-#1 Indianapolis and won the NCAA Midwest Super Regional championship, advancing to the Division II College World Series for the second time in school history. It took a thrilling 3-2 victory in the pivotal third game for GVSU to pick up the best-of-three series win.
It was quite a pitching matchup on Friday, as Grand Valley State started Gevaart, an All-GLIAC Second Team selection. Indianapolis employed All-GLVC East Division First Teamer Morgan Foley, a sophomore righty who struck out an NCAA-record 30 batters exactly one week ago in the opening round of the conference tournament.
GVSU was quite familiar with Foley from last season's Super Regional, when the then-freshman tossed 14.1 of the 20.0 innings pitched by the Greyhound hurlers in the three-game series. She entered Friday's game with a 31-6 record in 2014.
The Lakers opened up a 3-0 lead on Foley and UIndy in the second inning, started by a leadoff single ripped back up the middle from senior Tonya Calkins. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and was lifted for pinch runner Ali Vander Meer, who advanced to third on a passed ball. Two batters later, freshman Janae Langs hit a sharp two-out single to left center field, bringing in in Vander Meer for the game's first run.
Senior Brittany Taylor - batting leadoff for the first time this season - followed Langs' single with a two-run homer, a shot to left center field that quickly cleared the fence. It was her second homerun of the season and put GVSU ahead by a 3-0 count.
In the top of the third, the Lakers tacked on another run after a leadoff walk to senior Briauna Taylor was followed by a bloop single from senior Miranda Cleary. Freshman Jenna Lenza followed with a sharp single to centerfield that easily brought Taylor around from second base to score. GVSU did leave the bases loaded later in the frame, but owned a 4-0 advantage.
At that point, Gevaart was rolling along through the Greyhound lineup. She allowed a walk in each the first, second, and third innings, but those were the only UIndy runners to reach base during those frames. Gevaart stranded all three runners and also picked up five strikeouts in the first three innings.
Indianapolis looked to have a rally started in the bottom of the fourth inning when Taylor Russell and Alexa Alfaro led off with back-to-back bunt singles, the first hits of the game for the Greyhounds. Gevaart, however, dug down and recorded a swinging strikeout and consecutive infield popups to get out of the jam with no further trouble.
In the fifth, Gevaart worked through another strong inning, allowing just a two-out error. After the Greyhounds started the bottom of the sixth inning with a single, Gevaart struck out a pair of UIndy batters, including a looking strikeout of Tayler Weck to end the frame.
The Lakers finished their scoring in the top of the seventh. Freshman Kelsey Dominguez led off with a single to right field and advanced all the way to third base on a bunt single from Briauna Taylor. Dominguez came in to score on a sharp RBI single to right field from Cleary, upping the score to 5-0.
That base hit chased Foley from the game, as she was replaced by sophomore Coryn Tirpak. Lenza welcomed Tirpak to the game by ripping a shot down the left field line, which cleared the fence for a three-run homer. That was the fourth roundtripper of the season for the Laker rookie.
Gevaart set down the Greyhounds in order in the seventh, including a swinging strikeout for the final out of the game. The junior allowed only three hits - all singles, two of which were bunts - and three walks, while striking out nine batters. After a 130-pitch outing, she is now 13-2 on the year with five shutouts.
Seven of the nine Laker starters recorded a base hit, while Cleary (two walks) and Lenza each notched a pair of hits. Lenza tallied four RBI and Brittany Taylor added a pair of ribbies, as each player homered. Briauna Taylor scored a pair of runs.
It was GVSU's first shutout victory since a 5-0 home win over Malone on April 12th. The Lakers improve to 36-23 all-time in NCAA postseason play, including a 3-1 record against Indianapolis.
