Strong pitching and a walk-off single carried Grand Valley State to a road GLIAC sweep in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday afternoon (Apr. 16), as the Lakers won a pair of games over Ohio Dominican. GVSU earned a 5-0 shutout in game one over the Panthers, while Jenna Lenza and Kaylie Rhynard's late game heroics lifted the Lakers to a 2-1 win in the nightcap.

The Lakers started off their final weekend road trip with two important victories after earning splits earlier in the week against Saginaw Valley State and Findlay. After sweeping Ohio Dominican, GVSU is 26-8 on the season and 11-5 in conference play. ODU is now 17-25 overall and 4-12 in league action. 

Grand Valley State plays its last road contests of the regular season on Sunday (Apr. 17), as the Lakers travel to Tiffin, Ohio to face the Dragons at noon.

Game one saw freshman pitcher Allison Lipovsky throw her second complete game shutout in the last four days, receiving a pair of RBI from both Lenza and junior Ellie Balbach, who also homered. In game two, Lenza led off the bottom of the seventh with a game-tying solo homer. Junior Janae Langs reached on a two-out single in the eighth inning and Rhynard's base hit brought in Langs for the game-winning run.

After closing the scoring in game two, Rhynard began the doubleheader by crossing home plate in GVSU's first at-bat of game one. She reached on an ODU fielding error, stole second base, and came home on another Panther throwing error. Lipovsky got off to a good start, as she struck out a pair of batters in the bottom of the first.

The Lakers moved the lead to 2-0 in the third inning, as Langs and Rhynard notched consecutive singles to start the frame. Lenza - who recorded all three groundball outs in ODU's half of the second inning - singled through the left side to bring in Rhynard for a two-run cushion.

In the fifth, Langs led off with an infield single and moved to second base when Rhynard laid down a sacrifice bunt. Lenza followed with an RBI double to left field, scoring Langs for a 3-0 lead. That advantage moved to 5-0 two batters later, when Balbach delivered a two-run homer to center field, her team-high fourth roundtripper of the season.

That was more than enough support for Lipovsky, who struck out two more batters in the sixth inning and recorded a strikeout and groundout in the seventh to end the game. The righthander moves to 9-1 on the season, as Lipovsky scattered three hits in her complete game shutout, her third of the year. Lipovsky walked two batters and recorded eight strikeouts.

Balbach was 3-for-4 at the plate with a homer and two RBI, while Lenza also drove in a pair of runs, doubled, and went 2-for-3. Langs was also 2-for-3 and Rhynard scored twice while going 1-for-3. 

In game two, Ohio Dominican scored a third inning run off of Balbach, the game two starting pitcher for the Lakers. The Panthers used a two-out double and ensuing single to take the early 1-0 lead.

Neither team had many opportunities the rest of the game. GVSU wasted a good scoring chance when senior McKenze Supernaw doubled to lead off the fifth inning, but Ohio Dominican recorded three straight outs, stranding Supernaw as the tying runner. 

Balbach recorded four 1-2-3 innings (first, second, fifth, and seventh) to keep the Lakers in the game, but the junior lefty was going to be saddled with a tough loss if GVSU was unable to push a run across in the bottom of the seventh. And that is when Lenza led off the home half of the seventh with a solo homer down the left field line that just stayed fair, tying the game at 1-1 and sending the contest to extra innings.

In the eighth, Ohio Dominican put runners on first and third base with one out. Senior righty Sara Andrasik entered in relief of Balbach and notched a swinging strikeout and an infield popup to escap the jam.

The first two Lakers were retired in the bottom of the inning until Langs reached on a two-out infield single. Langs then stole second base and came around to score on Rhynard's walk-off single, as the ball went between the ODU third baseman and shortstop and was knocked down, but Langs raced home before the Panthers were able to make a play.

Grand Valley State won despite being outhit 7-5, as no Laker had more than one base hit. Supernaw's double and Lenza's dinger were two of the only three base hits in the game.

Balbach received a no-decision despite a strong outing. She tossed 7.1 innings, allowing one run on seven hits. She walked one and fanned five Panthers. Andrasik moved to 9-2 on the season, earning the win by recording the final two outs during that eighth inning jam.