PAINESVILLE, Ohio-- The Grand Valley State baseball team rebounded from a 7-4 defeat in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader with Lake Erie College to take game two by a 16-7 score and earn the series win against the Storm. The series figures to be the final conference matchup between the two teams, as Lake Erie is one of several schools departing the GLIAC at the end of the season. With the split, the Lakers move to 22-14 on the season, and 10-8 in GLIAC play.
Lake Erie College took a 3-0 lead off
Sawyer Chambers (1-1) in the opener after three innings of play, opening that up to a 7-0 lead with a four-run fourth inning while the Laker bats remained dormant. GVSU would finally get some offense going with a four-run frame of their own in the fifth, punctuated by an RBI double by
Alex Young and three consecutives RBI singles from
Austin LaDoux,
Brody Andrews and
Connor Glick. The Lakers were unable to build on that momentum, however, and fell by that final score of 7-4.
Game two saw the Lakers take a 3-0 lead after two innings, extending that lead to 5-1 in the top of the fourth. The Storm would battle bac with four runs in the bottom of the frame to tie the game up at 5-5 heading into the fifth.
After a scoreless fifth frame, the Lakers got a solo home run and a three-run shot in the sixth from
Keith Browning and
Matt Williams, respectively, to go ahead by a 9-5 margin. After the Storm cut the score to 9-7 with a pair of runs, the Lakers close out the game with five runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to put the game far out of reach.
Troy Dykhuis (1-1) earned the win in relief of starter
Mitch Ashcraft, as he pitched 2.1 innings and struck out three.
Williams led the Lakers in game two with five runs driven in on two hits as well as scoring two runs.
Josh Smith had a nice day at the plate with a pair each of RBI, hits and walks, while also scoring three runs. Glick scored three runs and had a pair of hits, while
Johnny Nate and
Seth Johnson each drove in two runs.
Evan Koning pitched one inning of relief for the Laker and struck out two, while Williams put in two innings of work on the mound and struck out three.
