Game Notes
Live Stats

ALLENDALE, Mich.—The Grand Valley State baseball team is headed to the next stop on the 2016 schedule, as they travel down to St. Charles, Missouri for the Maryville Baseball Invite this weekend. The invite will feature a Friday game against Drury University, Saturday games against Winona State and host Maryville, and one more for good measure on Sunday against Maryville as well. The games had originally been set to take place at Maryville, but due to field renovations have been moved to Lindenwood University, and will take place at the Lou Brock Sports Complex.
 
Grand Valley got off to a good start on the 2016 season with a 4-3 extra innings win in the first game of last weekends series at Southern Indiana. However after the opening game victory, the Lakers dropped the next two games of the series in convincing fashion, and now sit at 1-2 on the young season.
 
In the first game, Grand Valley would score first, pushing across a run in the top of the first inning. SIU would strike back in the bottom of the inning, scoring three quick runs off of Troy Dykhuis in his GVSU debut. The teams then exchanged several scoreless frames before  third baseman Anthony Villar, also making his debut, smoked a two run home run to tie the game up at three apiece in the bottom of the fifth. Both teams had a pitching change, and neither could score in the remaining 4 innings, forcing the game into extra innings. It would be the top of the 12^th inning before Josh Griffith would hit an RBI double to score Johnny Nate to put Grand Valley in a position to win, and Matt Williams was efficient in earning his first save of the season, coming in to close after four scoreless innings pitched by Tim Tarter (1-0).
 
If the offense had been slow to catch up with the pitching for either team in the first game, in the second and third games of the series Southern Indiana exploded for 29 runs, winning the series with their potent offense. Grand Valley, despite managing to score five runs in the second game, and six in the third, fell short of victory.
 
Offense has been a bit of a missing piece thus far for the Lakers, as they finished their first series batting just .226 as a team, but after being confined to practicing indoors all winter, a little rust is to be expected. The Lakers have a good opportunity to show better output as a team with the first series under their belt and a struggling opponent as their first matchup this weekend.
 
GVSU's Friday opponent, Drury, is 0-4 on the season, having lost four straight games to St. Edwards University, being outscored 8-28 in the series. The Panthers have struggled to find their bats thus far, hitting just .177  through four games and recording just 22 hits to 39 strikeouts. In previous matchups between GVSU and Drury, the Lakers own a slight 4-3 series edge all time, with the teams splitting a doubleheader last season in Leesburg, Florida.  First pitch for that game is set for 2:30 pm (CST).
 
After playing Drury on Friday, the Lakers will take on the Winona State Warriors in a Saturday afternoon duel, set for  2:30 pm (CST.) The Warriors are also 1-2 on the season, having lost a close series with Southwest Baptist last week. While they allowed 20 runs in the three game series, the Warriors have done well on offense, hitting .314 as a team, averaging 6 runs and more than 10 hits per game, and belting three home runs.
 
The second game of Saturday for the Lakers will be the first of two against the host Saints of  Maryville University. The Saints have played 11 games thus far, and carrying a 6-5 record into the weekend's games. After starting the season off 6-2, the Saints have dropped three straight contests in which they scored five or fewer runs. As a team, the Saints are hitting .280 on the season. Zack Ruckman (.350 BA, 14 hits, six RBI) and Yoonjae Nam (.314 BA, 4 home runs, 10 RBI) are two potent producers for the Saints, who also feature some good pitching. Steven Reynolds is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA in three starts this season, with zero walks and 25 strikeouts, while Robbie Gordon is 1-0 with a 2.16 Era in two starts, with 12 strikeouts and just two walks. First pitch is set for 5:30 pm (CST).
 
 Sunday will feature just one game, an encore performance against the Saints, set for a 2:30 pm (CST) first pitch. This weekend's invite will be the last tune-up that GVSU will get before heading down to Florida for it's annual Russmatt Invitational from March 8^th-14th, in which the team will play seven games in seven days.