Friday (Apr. 28)
vs. Ferris State (18-20 overall, 11-9 GLIAC)
3:30 p.m. & 5:30 p.m.
ESPN3 Video: Game 1 | Game 2
Live Stats
 
Saturday (Apr. 29)
at #22 Saginaw Valley State (29-12 overall, 12-6 GLIAC)
4:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2
 
The Grand Valley State softball team enters the final weekend of regular season play in first place in the GLIAC standings and riding a 15-game winning streak. GVSU has an important week ahead, however, as the Lakers have a pair of crucial doubleheaders - at home against Ferris State on Friday (Apr. 28) and at second-place Saginaw Valley State on Saturday (Apr. 29).
 
Friday's regular season finale against the Bulldogs begins at 3:30 p.m. The Lakers are a perfect 12-0 at home this season and have recorded shutout wins in eight of those contests. Saturday's twinbill at #22 Saginaw Valley State begins at 4:00 p.m. and could be a de facto regular season championship matchup between GVSU and the Cardinals.
 
Since falling in the first game of a doubleheader at #18 Wayne State on Apr. 2, the Lakers have ran off 15 consecutive victories to move to 27-15 overall and 13-5 in GLIAC play. Over that span, Grand Valley State has outscored its opponents by a 79-17 margin, including nine shutout wins. GVSU has been far better than its opponents offensively (.350 to .179 team batting average), defensively (only seven errors to its opponents' 17), and in the circle (0.75 team ERA to 4.63 for the opponents).
 
Last week, the Lakers swept home doubleheaders over Aquinas (2-0, 8-0), Lake Erie (5-2, 12-5), and Walsh (2-0, 3-0) to extend the winning streak to 15 in a row. It is the fourth-longest winning streak in program history, but a sweep of Ferris State on Friday would push the streak to the third-longest in team history at 17 straight games. The school record of 30 wins in a row ran from Mar. 1 to Apr. 13, 2003.
 
Some of Grand Valley State's statistics during the winning streak are quite impressive. While the Laker opponents have scored just 17 runs in those 15 games, senior Jenna Lenza herself has scored 19 times (senior Janae Langs has added 12 runs, junior Teagan Shomin crossed home plate 11 times) and freshman Kelcie LaTour has collected 16 RBI compared to just 14 for the opponents.
 
Lenza is hitting .477 during the stretch with 21 hits, nine of those being doubles. She is just one of the many Lakers that is heating up during this end of the year streak. There are eight GVSU players with double-digit hits over the last 15 games, as LaTour (19 hits), senior Kelsey Dominguez (17 hits, 15-game hitting streak) and Langs (17) also stepping up. Shomin (four doubles, one triple, one homer) and junior Tanner Kiessel (five doubles, one triple, one homer) both have 16 hits each during the team's undefeated run.
 
The Lakers have committed just seven errors during the last 15 games, which is good for a .983 fielding percentage. Comparatively, GVSU's opponents are fielding at a .962 rate. Only one Laker position player has even more than one error over the past 15 games.
 
Perhaps the most remarkable facet of the team recently has been the pitching. Sophomore Allison Lipovsky - the four-time consecutive GLIAC Pitcher of the Week - has been outstanding, but two other Laker hurlers are unbeaten and have ERA's under 1.00 during this stretch. Lipovsky is leading the way with a 7-0 record in her seven starts, allowing just three runs on 21 hits in 51.0 innings. She has five shutouts and an 0.41 ERA, to go with nine walks and 80 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting just .124 off of Lipovsky over the latest stretch.
 
Juniors Courtney Reinhold and Allie Grys have been terrific too. At 4-0, Reinhold has won all four of her starts and allowed just one earned run over the past 18.1 innings for a 0.38 ERA. Grys is 3-0 with a pair of saves and a 0.64 earned run average, giving up just two earned runs in 22.0 innings in the circle. The Laker pitching staff is tied with Wayne State for the most shutouts (16) in the GLIAC). No other conference team has more than nine.
 
As a team, GVSU leads the GLIAC in batting average (.323) and shutouts, while ranking second in on-base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.446), and ERA (1.91). The Lakers are also first in triples (12) and total bases (525), while placing second in doubles (76), extra base hits (103), and the second-fewest strikeouts (122) in the conference.
 
On Monday - for the second time this month, Lenza and Lipovsky won both the GLIAC Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week awards, respectively. Lenza hit .592 for the week and collected a walk-off two-run homer to defeat Walsh on Sunday, 2-0. She scored more runs (eight) than the Laker opponents (seven) and with her 22nd double of the season on Sunday, she tied the GLIAC single season record with former Laker great Katie Martin (2013).
 
Lipovsky went 3-0 last week and notched a 0.64 ERA in 22.0 innings, giving up only two runs on eight hits in three complete games. She totaled 34 strikeouts against only two walks, while opponents hit just .108 off of the righty.
 
Overall this season, Lenza is the GLIAC leader in doubles, batting average (.481), on-base percentage (.555), and slugging percentage (.737), while also ranking first in conference-only games in those same categories. Her 22 runs and 13 walks also are the most among any GLIAC player.
 
Lipovsky leads the conference with 8.99 strikeouts per game and is second in shutouts (eight), total strikeouts (158), earned run average (1.20), and opponents batting average (.151). She is also the league leader in strikeouts (82) and K's per game (8.70) in conference-only games. Over the last six games, Lipovsky has recorded 11, 13, 15, 10, 11, and 13 strikeouts.
 
Ferris State has won four games in a row since dropping a wild doubleheader at Northwood on Apr. 15, falling by scores of 7-4 and 18-13. The Bulldogs are 9-7 in April. Away from Big Rapids, FSU is 11-18 with a 3-8 record in true road games. The Bulldogs are currently the seventh seed in the GLIAC standings with an 11-9 record, but Northwood (10-10) and Findlay (9-11) are also in contention; two of those three teams will make the conference tournament.
 
Saginaw Valley State lost three games in a row, including a doubleheader sweep at Tiffin last Saturday. The Cardinals rebounded to win a pair of games at Findlay on Sunday and two games over non-conference opponent Cleary on Wednesday. In April, SVSU is 14-6 and sits just one game back of the Lakers in the GLIAC standings, but are also only one game ahead of Wayne State, Ohio Dominican, and Hillsdale. The Cardinals are 7-2 in home games this season.
 
In the regional rankings released on Wednesday afternoon, Saginaw Valley State is ranked third, Wayne State is fifth, and Grand Valley State is ninth, just on the outside of the eight teams that will advance to the NCAA Tournament in two weeks. Seven of the 10 teams in the rankings are from the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC).
 
The 2017 GLIAC Tournament will be played on May 5-7 in Findlay, Ohio, with the tournament seeds announced on Sunday, after the GVSU-SVSU doubleheader.