vs. Tiffin
GLIAC Tournament
Friday, May 12th
Grady's Field l Xenia. Ohio
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XENIA, Ohio.-- Fresh off an opening round win over Wayne State on Thursday, the Grand Valley State baseball team will continue play at the GLIAC Tournament on Friday evening with a 5:30 p.m matchup against third-seeded Tiffin University. Fans can follow along with the game via a live radio broadcast, a free video stream, or with the live stats, all accessible at the links above. 

GVSU (30-21) prevailed in Thursday's opening round game against #2 Wayne State after sterling individual efforts from Ryan Arnold, Austin LaDoux and Matt Williams. Arnold pitched seven innings of one-run ball, allowing just two hits and striking out five batters en route to shutting down the Warrior offense. LaDoux provided a two-run home run in the fourth inning to give the Lakers the go-ahead run, which would prove to be the decisive game-winning hit in the 2-1 victory. Williams rotated to the mound in the eighth to relieve Arnold and pitched two shutout innings to record his ninth save of the season and 39th of his career, which ties the NCAA Division II career saves record. 

In Tiffin, the Lakers face an opponent that they have split with, both in a four-game series last season and once again this season. Overall, the Lakers own a 22-14 advantage over Tiffin in the all-time series. The Dragons are a team that can score, ranking seventh in the GLIAC in total runs (311) and fifth in batting average (.305), however they hit for significantly less power than the Lakers, and rank second to last in the conference in doubles (72) and home runs (26), whereas the Lakers rank second (112) and fourth (43) in those categories, respectively. Outfielder Kurt Barbeau is the Dragon's primary RBI man, having driven in 42 this season on 56 hits, while second baseman Kyle Lento is batting .358 with 54 hits and 35 RBI's this season. 

The Dragons rank in the middle of the pack among conference teams in ERA (5.59), but have also served up 50 home runs this season as a staff, which is the second most in the GLIAC. GVSU features a deep lineup of hitters that will look to take advantage of the Dragon's inflated ERA and generate more offense than they did in the opening round. 

In earlier GLIAC Tournament action on Friday, Hillsdale scored four ninth-inning runs to defeat Wayne State 11-8, and Walsh and Northwood are set to compete at 2:00 p.m this afternoon.