The Grand Valley State softball team capped a perfect 4-0 weekend at the Lewis Dome Invitational, knocking off a pair of in-region opponents on Saturday night (Feb. 27). GVSU had a pair of big innings offensively and tallied 11 hits in each contest to top Wisconsin-Parkside and William Jewll to kick off the season with a 4-0 mark.

After trailing 3-0 to Wisconsin-Parkside, the Lakers notched a six-run third inning to defeat the Rangers, 7-6, in the opener on Saturday. Leading 5-3 heading into the seventh inning against William Jewell in the nightcap, GVSU posted four more runs to put the game away and win 9-3.

All four wins for the Lakers came against in-region opponents, specifically teams from the Great Lakes Valley Conference. On Friday night at the indoor tournament in Rosemont, Ill., Grand Valley State beat Missouri S&T (4-3) and Illinois-Springfield (7-5). The Lakers outscored their opponents by a 27-17 margin this weekend.

Wisconsin-Parkside (3-11 overall) took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on Saturday night against Laker lefty Ellie Balbach and the lead stayed that way until the bottom of the third frame when GVSU exploded for six runs on six hits. Junior Kelsey Dominguez tripled to right center field to score sophomore Kaylie Rhynard and junior Ali Vander Meer to make the score 3-2. Dominguez then tied the game at 3-3 as she scored on a bunt from classmate Jenna Lenza.

Balbach earned some redemption by following a McKenze Supernaw single with an RBI double, bringing in Lenza for a 4-3 Laker lead. Freshman Shannon Flaherty notched a sacrifice fly and senior Chelsea Horvath supplied a two-out single to score Balbach and put GVSU in front, 6-3. 

The Laker advantage moved to 7-3 on a Supernaw run-scoring single, bringing Rhynard across home plate in the fourth inning. Wisconsin-Parkside scored a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to make it a 7-6 game heading into its final at-bat. Senior pitcher Sara Andrasik, who replaced Balbach to start the sixth, received a pair of groundouts and a strikeout in the 1-2-3 seventh inning to preseve the one-run victory.

Balbach moved to 1-0 with the win, allowing four runs on four hits in five innings in the circle. She walked five batters and fanned four. Andrasik earned her first save of the season, as she gave up two runs on three hits and struck out a pair of batters.

GVSU totaled 11 base hits from eight different players, as Rhynard, Supernaw, and Marianne Deppe all notched two hits in the game. Rhynard was 2-for-4 and scored twice, Supernaw was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI, while Deppe smacked a pair of singles in a 2-for-3 effort. Dominguez drove in two runs with her third-inning triple.
 
The nightcap against William Jewell (6-6) was scoreless through three innings, but Grand Valley State scored in each of the next four frames. Freshman left fielder Rachel Terwilliger's two-out RBI single started the scoring in the fourth, scoring Vander Meer for a 1-0 lead. With the score tied 1-1 in the fifth, Balbach drilled a two-out run-scoring double, bringing Lenza across home plate to give the Lakers a 2-1 cushion.

William Jewell took a 3-2 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth, but GVSU plated seven runs in the final two innings. A two-out ground-rule double from Dominguez knotted the score at 3-3 before Supernaw brought in two runs on a William Jewell error, with Rhynard and Dominguez scoring on the miscue. The Lakers took a 5-3 lead to their final at-bat.

Horvath drove in a run with a seventh-inning single and three runs scored when Rhynard's two-run single was followed with another WJC error, making the GVSU cushion 9-3. 

Freshman righthander Allison Lipovsky used the run support and retired the last seven batters she faced. She recorded three 1-2-3 innings - the first, sixth, and seventh frames. Lipovsky is now 2-0 on the year, as she gave up three unearned runs and six hits in a complete game victory. She walked one batter and struck out a pair of hitters, while getting 15 outs on popups or fly balls.

Rhynard, Dominguez, Balbach, Terwilliger, and Horvath all tallied two hits in the win, with Terwilliger scoring twice and Rhynard driving in two runs. Dominguez and Balbach both doubled in GVSU's second straight 11-hit contest. Grand Valley State had 10, 14, 11, and 11 hits in its four games over the weekend.

The Lakers will see a much warmer climate on Mar. 6-12, when GVSU plays a dozen games at its annual Spring Break trip in Clermont, Fla.