vs. Ashland
Wednesday, April 19th
Live Stats

ASHLAND, Ohio-- The Grand Valley State baseball team will complete the season series with the Ashland Eagles on Wednesday, exactly one week after taking the opening two games from the Eagles at GVSU Baseball Field. The Lakers are 22-14 on the season (10-8 GLIAC) as they travel to Ashland to face the Eagles (13-24, 6-15 GLIAC) in the back half of the season series. 

The teams find themselves in different positions right now, as the Eagles are mired in a brutal stretch where they have picked up a win in just one of their past nine contests, whereas the Lakers have won six of seven beginning with last Wednesday's doubleheader. The winning ways have propelled GVSU into fourth place in the conference standings. 

Grand Valley State has been playing markedly better over the past six games against Ashland and Lake Erie, batting .369 as a team and slugging .544. The Lakers have averaged just under a home run per game in that span and have smacked 11 doubles on the way to outscoring their opponents 56-28 and posting a 5-1 record. Five Lakers (Seth Johnson, Anthony Villar, Alex Young, Connor Glick and Austin Ladoux) have batted over .400 during that span and collected double-digit hits as well, boosting the Lakers to a season average of .325. 

On the mound, the Lakers held opponents to a .249 batting average and compiled a 4.79 staff ERA in the six game span. The Lakers struck out 42 batters and issued just 14 walks, a 3:1 ratio. In their starts against the Eagles last week, Tate Brawley and Noah Lamboley were both solid in picking up their team-leading fourth wins of the season. 

The Eagles brought the GLIAC worst team batting average into last Wednesday's doubleheader, but currently sit one point ahead of Findlay (.265) in that regard for the conference's second lowest average. In games played at home this season, Ashland has gone 4-7, including wins against Hillsdale and Walsh, as well an 8-7 win over Ohio Dominican in 10 innings on Saturday.