The Grand Valley State softball team split a road GLIAC doubleheader against West Michigan rival Ferris State on Saturday (Apr. 18) in Big Rapids. One big inning helped the Bulldogs win game one by a 5-2 final before the Lakers responded by capturing a 6-3 victory in the nightcap.
 
GVSU's split on Saturday pushes the Lakers' record to 27-13 overall and 13-8 in GLIAC play. Ferris State is 15-31 on the season and 8-10 in league action. Next weekend is the final regular season action for Grand Valley State, who takes on Findlay (Friday, Apr. 24) and Hillsdale (Saturday, Apr. 25).
 
The Lakers were playing just their fourth road doubleheader of the season after recently finishing up a 14-game homestand in Allendale. Ferris State struck first in game one, notching four runs on four hits in the first inning off GVSU starter Courtney Reinhold, who normally pitches the second game of doubleheaders.
 
Grand Valley State answered in its next at-bat with two big swings. Junior McKenze Supernaw led off the second with a solo home run, her sixth blast of the season. Three batters later, classmate Chelsea Horvath also went yard, hitting her second homer of the year and cutting the deficit to 4-2.
 
The Lakers continued putting runners on base the rest of the game, but were unable to push another run across the plate. In its last five at-bats, GVSU left at least one runner on base in every inning, including two runners left on base in four of the final five innings.
 
After the tough first inning, Reinhold settled down and allowed just one more run on four hits the rest of the game. She falls to 11-5 with the loss, giving up five earned runs on eight hits in six innings in the circle. Reinhold walked one and struck out four Bulldogs.
 
Supernaw, sophomore Jenna Lenza, and freshman Teagan Shomin each went 2-for-4. Sophomore Ellie Balbach's fourth inning leadoff double was the only other extra base hit aside from the homers from Supernaw and Horvath.
 
Grand Valley State got on the board first in game two. Shomin brought in a pair of runs with a two-out double to left field, scoring pinch runner Ali Vander Meer and Kaylie Rhynard in the bottom of the second inning.
 
FSU tied the score in the third inning with two runs on a Laker error, but GVSU quickly answered in the bottom of the third. Supernaw led off with a single to left field and two batters later, Lenza smashed a home run to center field, upping the score to 4-2. Like Supernaw's homer in game one, it was Lenza's sixth roundtripper of the season.
 
The Laker advantage was 4-3 in the sixth inning when sophomore Mari Deppe led off with a single to right field. She moved to second and two batters later, Shomin's single to center field brought Deppe in and made the score 5-3. Shomin scored later in the inning on an RBI single from Balbach to close out the scoring.
 
After usually pitching the opening game of doubleheaders, junior Sara Andrasik tossed game two on Saturday and earned the complete game win. In seven innings, the righty gave up eight hits and three runs, none of which were earned. She walked two batters and fanned four to improve to 9-6 on the season.
 
Shomin again went 2-for-4, adding a double and three RBI, while Deppe was 2-for-2 with a walk and a run. Balbach batted cleanup and went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Lenza homered and extended her current streak of reaching base to 28 consecutive games. That is the longest streak by a GVSU player since former All-American Katie Martin reached base in 32 consecutive games in 2012.