XENIA, Ohio—The old adage of "defense wins championships" could be the mantra for the Grand Valley State baseball team, if their opening round victory over Hillsdale was indicative of the Lakers potential on defense. GVSU once again held the GLIAC's best offense to less than five runs, the fifth time in as many chances this season, and scored two late runs to push ahead of the Chargers for good.
 
The first round victory sets the stage for a 2:00 p.m. contest on Friday for the Lakers, who will play the loser of the Thursday evening matchup between No. 3 Malone and No. 4 Wayne State.
 
Josh Smith put on a clinic on defense for the Lakers, making several great defensive plays at second base that saved several runs, as well as contributing a 3 for 4 day at the plate, driving in the game-winning run in the sixth inning.
 
The Lakers got off to a good start in the game, as starter Josh Griffith (2-4) retired the Chargers top three hitters, in order, to begin the first inning.  In the bottom of the inning, center fielder Alex Young lead off with a deep double to left center field, then advanced to third on a groundout by Jason Ribecky. The next batter up, Matt Williams, then launched a two run home run over the left field fence to give the Lakers an early 2-0 lead.
 
With two outs, catcher Connor Glick was struck by a pitch, and once on first, stole second base to get into scoring position. Seth Johnson then doubled to right center to plate Glick and give the Lakers a 3-0 advantage after one inning of play.
 
Hillsdale would get a run back in the second inning, after a leadoff double by Ethan Wiskur on which he advanced to third when Young got his cleat stuck in the outfield fence while trying to make a play on the ball. Wiskur then came home on a groundout to second base to make the score 3-1.
 
After the Lakers stranded a runner on second in the bottom of the second, the Charger struck again in the third inning, getting two runs across off of a bloop single to center field from Wiskur. The pair of runs tied the game up at 3-3 after three full innings.
 
In the fifth inning, the Chargers threatened to score, as GLIAC Player of the Year Luke Ortel singled up the middle to lead off the inning, and advanced to second on a second Charger single. A hard hit liner in the vicinity of second base by the next Hillsdale batter was caught by a leaping Smith, who then made a quick throw to second to double off a diving Ortel. Wiskur then fired a liner in Smith's direction three pitches later, to which Smith climbed the ladder and snared out of the air for the third out to end the top of the fifth.
 
In the sixth inning, the Lakers would again survive a jam, as Hillsdale advanced runners to the corners with no outs to lead off the inning. Tim Tarter came on in relief of Griffith, and induced a fly out to center, a line out to center and a fly out to left field to  strand the runner at third and preserve the tie.
With the momentum of two straight scoring stops to motivate them, the Lakers scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Glick walked, then advanced to second on a sacrifice by Johnson. After a groundout, Smith came up to bat and delivered a single through the left side past the shortstop, and the fleet-footed Glick beat the throw home to give the Lakers what would be the game winning run.
 
The Lakers would add an insurance run in the eighth inning, as catcher Brody Andrews reached on a fielding error with two outs. After Smith singled to advance Andrews to second, shortstop Johnny Nate singled through the left side to plate Andrews for a fifth and final run.
 
In the ninth, Williams, who had got the final out of the eighth in relief of Tarter, came on to pitch an attempt at a 17^th save. After getting a groundout for the leadoff man, Williams yielded a single to Ortel, but stranded him after inducing a flyout and getting the Chargers final batter on a swinging strike out to end the game in a 5-3 Laker victory.
 
Griffith pitched five innings for GVSU, allowing three earned runs on nine hits, but did not factor in the decision. Tarter (8-1) pitched 2.2 innings of relief in getting the win, while Williams earned his 17^th save by pitching 1.1 innings, allowing a hit and striking out one.
 
Smith had three hits and the game winning RBI for the Lakers, while Young had two hits and scored once, and Glick scored two runs on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Williams had two RBI.