Saturday (Apr. 22)
Senior Day / Alumni Day
vs. Lake Erie (12-20 overall, 5-11 GLIAC)
1:00 p.m. & 3:00 p.m.
ESPN3 Video: Game 1 | Game 2
Live Stats
 
Sunday (Apr. 23)
vs. Walsh (12-29 overall, 2-14 GLIAC)
12:00 p.m. & 2:00 p.m.
ESPN3 Video: Game 1 | Game 2
Live Stats
 
The Grand Valley State softball team has rattled off 11 consecutive victories and is playing its best ball of the season, while the Lakers are aiming to keep up their strong play this weekend with a pair of home doubleheaders in Allendale. On Saturday (Apr. 22) at 1:00, GVSU hosts Lake Erie before welcoming Walsh on Sunday (Apr. 23) for a twinbill starting at noon.
 
Saturday's doubleheader is Senior Day, with six Laker seniors being honored prior to the start of the twinbill. It is also Alumni Day, with past GVSU players coming back to celebrate the current group of Lakers, as well as show their support for the program.
 
Entering this weekend, GVSU is 23-15 overall and 9-5 in GLIAC play - as the Lakers sit just one game out in the loss column for first place in the conference standings. Four league schools - Wayne State, Hillsdale, Ohio Dominican, and Grand Valley State - have five losses, while Saginaw Valley State has a slight edge at 10-4.
 
Lake Erie comes into Saturday's game with a 12-20 record and a 5-11 mark in GLIAC action. Walsh is 12-29 on the year and 2-14 in league play.
 
Since dropping a 1-0 defeat at #18 Wayne State in the opening game of a doubleheader on Apr. 2, Grand Valley State has not lost again. The Lakers are 11-0 since that one-run loss and have outscored their opponents by a 57-10 margin during the winning streak. That includes seven shutouts from the GVSU pitching staff and less than four runs in every game during the stretch.
 
Pitching, hitting, defense - the Lakers have been far better than their opponents in all three categories over the last 11 games. With a .346 team average during that span, GVSU is nearly doubling its opponents' mark of .182, also notching large advantages in hits (102-47), doubles (24-8), and total bases (139-63).
 
Senior Jenna Lenza leads the Lakers during the win streak with a .452 average and 13 runs, while seven of her 14 hits are doubles. Lenza has outscored GVSU's opponents on her own, 13-10. Five other Lakers are also collecting at least one hit per game during the 11-game win streak: seniors Kelsey Dominguez (.406, four doubles, five RBI) and Janae Langs (.316, eight runs), juniors Tanner Kiessel (.379, four doubles, a triple, four RBI) and Teagan Shomin (.297, eight runs, four doubles), and freshman Kelcie LaTour (.376, 12 RBI - four more than the Laker opponents) have all started hitting the ball very well recently.
 
Another important factor has been GVSU's defense, which was committed just five errors over the last 11 games, compared to 14 miscues for its opponents.
 
The eye-popping numbers continue when examining the pitching staff. Over the past 11 games, the Laker pitchers own a collective 0.66 ERA and have allowed 10 runs on 47 hits in 74.0 innings. With only 17 walks and 76 total strikeouts, GVSU's opponents are hitting just .182 during the win streak.
 
Sophomore Allison Lipovsky - the reigning three-time GLIAC Pitcher of the Week - has been lights-out during this span. In 36.0 innings, she has given up one run on 15 hits, totaling a miniscule 0.19 ERA with a 5-0 record. Four of her five appearances have been shutouts and she has allowed just a solo home run in the last 36 innings. Lipovsky has recorded 56 strikeouts and only seven walks over the last few weeks.
 
Juniors Courtney Reinhold and Allie Grys are not far behind, either. In four appearances, Reinhold is 3-0 with a 0.53 earned run average, giving up four total runs (only one earned) in 13.1 innings. Grys owns a 2-0 record and a 0.93 ERA, as the transfer has scattered nine hits in 15.0 innings, giving up just two runs in her four appearances.
 
Four of the Lakers' 11 wins during this streak are by one or two runs, but Grand Valley State has also captured five wins by more than five runs. GVSU has defeated Findlay, Tiffin, Saint Joseph's, Northwood, and Aquinas in doubleheader sweeps since topping #18 Wayne State in game two of that Apr. 2 twinbill.
 
Dominguez, Langs, Lenza, Ellie Balbach, Marianne Deppe, and Ali Vander Meer make up the six-member senior class that will be honored prior to game one of the Lake Erie doubleheader on Saturday. That group owns a 128-59 record over the past four seasons, good for a .684 winning percentage. The figure increases in GLIAC play to the tune of a .724 winning percentage, as the Lakers are 63-24 in conference action entering this weekend.
 
The seniors have been to the NCAA Midwest Region Tournament each of the last three seasons and are looking to defend their 2016 regional championship in this year's postseason. On Wednesday (Apr. 19), the NCAA released its first regional rankings, with GVSU ranked ninth; the top eight teams advance to postseason play. Saginaw Valley State (third) and Wayne State (sixth) are fellow GLIAC schools that are also ranked in the top-10. There will be two more weeks of rankings before the official announcement of the NCAA Tournament field.
 
Lake Erie went just 5-11 through March, but have improved to a 7-9 mark in April, which includes doubleheader sweeps of Tiffin and Malone and splits against Ashland, Hillsdale, and Notre Dame (Ohio). Seven of the team's nine losses in April are by two runs or fewer, so LEC has been close in a number of its contests. The Storm is 4-4 in true road games and will finish the regular season with road twinbills at GVSU, Ferris State, and Walsh.
 
The team is sixth in the GLIAC in batting average (.303), on-base percentage (.352), and slugging percentage (.405), while also owning the sixth-most doubles (56) extra base hits (70) and seventh-most homers (11). However, Lake Erie's team ERA of 4.25 is 10th in the league and the Storm is 11th in opponents' batting average (.314).
 
Walsh hit a rough patch near the end of March and beginning of April, dropping eight straight games, which carried into a stretch of 17 losses in 19 games. The Cavaliers bring a three-game winning streak to West Michigan, having earned a split against Tiffin and sweeping a non-conference twinbill at Malone on Wednesday. Walsh is 10-17 overall away from home and 3-5 in true road contests.
 
Among GLIAC schools, Walsh ranks last in batting average (.239), on-base percentage (.299), slugging percentage (.324), RBI (102), runs (116), and total bases (345). The Cavaliers' team ERA of 3.74 is seventh in the conference, as is their .296 opponents batting average.
 
Next week, Grand Valley State hosts Ferris State on Friday (Apr. 28) before finishing the regular season at Saginaw Valley State next Sunday (Apr. 30). The 2017 GLIAC Tournament is in Findlay, Ohio on May 5-7.