CANTON, Ohio—The Grand Valley State baseball team lost both games of the opening doubleheader of GLIAC play with Walsh University on Friday, dropping the first game 7-3 before falling in a shootout with the Cavaliers in the nightcap, 18-17.
 
A slow start offensively in the first game doomed the Lakers, who move to 11-8 on the season with the losses. Walsh took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning off Laker starter Jake Mason (2-2), then increased that lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth.
 
The Walsh lead would blossom to 6-0 through five innings by the time the Lakers mustered their first runs, scoring three in the top of the sixth but coming up empty in the final frame and falling by a 7-3 margin.
 
In the second game, the offense both teams was on display from the onset, as the Lakers pushed across three runs to lead off the game, two via Anthony Villar's first long ball of the season. Not to be outdone, the Cavaliers got two first-inning runs of their own off Noah Lamboley. In the second frame, the Lakers loaded the bases off a pair of Cavaliers errors and a hit batter, setting the stage for a grand slam by shortstop Johnny Nate to put the Lakers ahead 7-2. Walsh would then score three runs in the bottom of the frame to get within two, 7-5.
 
After scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning and allowing a pair to Walsh, the Lakers held a 10-8 lead in the game. Three more runs in the top of the fifth off solo home runs by Austin LaDoux and Seth Johnson and an RBI double by Brody Andrews pushed the lead to 13-8, and it appeared the Lakers might have seized control of the game.
 
That was not to be, however, as Walsh offset a Laker run in the top of the sixth to score four in the bottom of the frame and trim the lead to 14-12. A sacrifice fly by Villar in the seventh made the score 15-12, only to see Cavaliers catcher Austin Szink hit his third home run of the game to offset the score and make it 15-13.
 
Walsh would score twice in the bottom of the eighth to tie the score at 15-15, and after neither team scored in the ninth inning, the game would go on to extra innings. GVSU's Michael Battistelli started off the frame with a single to get on board, and one batter later second baseman Josh Smith would hit a two-run home run, his first round-tripper of the season, to score Battistelli and give the Lakers a 17-15 run heading into the bottom of the inning.
 
The Cavaliers got the last laugh, however, as third baseman Tyson Lautanen led off the inning with the 11^th home run of the game, and Walsh pushed across the tying run three batters later on an RBI single by Luke Caple, who had been 0-for-6 at the plate prior to the 10^th inning. After the Lakers recorded the second out of the inning, Szink delivered the game-winning RBI single to give Walsh the 18-17 victory.
 
Shortstop Johnny Nate has a stellar day at the plate, finishing 5-10 with five hits (including a grand slam), six runs scored and six runs batted in. Villar finished with three hits (2-run HR), three RBI and two runs scored, while outfielder Seth Johnson notched four hits (solo HR), three runs batted in and one run scored. Josh Smith went 3-for-6 in his return to the diamond from injury, including the tiebreaking home run in the 10^th inning. Brody Andrews amassed four hits, two runs scored and a pair driven in, while LaDoux hit his second home run of the season in the nightcap.
 
All told, the teams combined for 35 runs on 46 hits, 11 of which were home runs, in just the second game of the doubleheader alone. The two teams will play a second doubleheader on Saturday, which is slated for an 11:00 a.m start.