Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The 14th-ranked Grand Valley State baseball team moved into the overall GLIAC lead with a twinbill split at Hillsdale Sunday afternoon. Hillsdale claimed the opener by a 5-4 score, but the Lakers claimed the nightcap, 3-2. GVSU enters the final week of the season 27-14 overall and 19-9 in GLIAC action. The Lakers will play a single 9-inning contest at Lewis on Tuesday (April 26), followed by the final series of the regular season at Malone Saturday (May 2) and Sunday (May 3).

Game 1
GVSU started quickly in the opener Sunday, scoring three runs in the top of the first. Senior RF Jamie Potts blasted a 3-run home run to left field following a lead off walk by senior CF Mike Nadratowski and a one-out single from senior SS Kevin Zak. The Lakers added a single run in the top of the third to take a 4-0 lead when Nadratowski singled and came home a double off the bat of Zak. 

Junior pitcher Tim Tarter cruised through the first four innings, retiring the Chargers in order. Tarter recorded the first out of the fifth before Hillsdale picked up its first baserunner with a single to center. Tarter then got a strikeout before yielding two extrabase hits and a walk. Hillsdale scored five runs on five hits in the inning to take a 5-4 lead heading into the sixth. 

Freshman catcher Conner Glick tallied a two-out double, but the Lakers were unable to push the equalizer across the plate. Potts was 1-for-3 with 3 RBI, while Zak tallied a 2-for-3 day at the plate and drove in one run. Glick was 2-for-3 and Natrawtowski was 1-for-4 with a run and two walks. Tarter yielded five runs on four hits in 4.2 innings of work with five strikeouts. Kevin Halberg allowed three hits in the final 1.1 innings.

Game 2
The Laker offense produced a single run on three hits in the top of the first of game two. Nadrawtowski singled, stole second and came home on a single to right field off the bat of DH Mitch Kozlowski. Hillsdale answered with a run in the bottom of the first on one hit. The Lakers regained the lead in the top of the third with a kozlowski walk, followed by a double from Zak that plated Kozlowski. 3B Aaron Overbeck laced a 2-out single to center to score Zak and give GVSU a 3-1 lead. The Chargers scored a run in the bottom of the third after a leadoff double, but that all the scoring they would manage off two Laker pitchers. 

Hillsdale did have a runners on first and third in the bottom of the ninth with just one out, but sophomore relief pitcher Matt Williams induced a popup to second and the game ended when Hillsdale attempted to steal home following a ball in the dirt that catcher John McLaughlin scooped up and applied the tag for the final out. 

Kozlowski was 1-for-3 with a run scored and 1 RBI, while Zak was 1-for-4 with an RBI and Overbeck was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Redshirt freshman Tyler Lozen picked up the first win of his career, yielding two runs on four hits with two strikeouts in 7.0 innings of work. Sophomore Matt Williams earned the save with two scoreless innings.