KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Grand Valley State Lakers earned a doubleheader sweep over regional opponent Missouri-St. Louis Wednesday afternoon at Herritage Park. The Lakers took game one, 8-6, before a 7-3 win in the back end. Grand Valley State has won four games in a row and improve to 6-4 on the year while UMSL falls to 5-4 on the season.
Game one saw the Lakers clutch gene shine as six of their eight runs scored with two outs in the inning.
Ryan Blake-Jones notched three hits in the game while
Austin LaDoux scored three runs after a pair of hits and a walk in the contest.
Grant Peters got his first win of the season (1-0) for two-plus innings of work while
Kyle Lawson earned his third save of the year. Christian Thrasher (0-1) suffered the loss for UMSL, allowing six runs – three earned – on six hits and three walks in 2.2 innings of work.
The Lakers took the lead in the home second. After a leadoff single by
Ryan Blake-Jones, a sharp lineout to first doubled him off, but
Austin LaDoux singled,
Ricky Clark walked and
Josh C. Smith drove in LaDoux with a sharp ground ball through the left side.
The Tritons erupted for five runs in the third, capped by a three-run homer from Jarrett O'Brien, but the Lakers responded with a five-spot of their own. Gleason clubbed a two-run homer over the left-center fence then, with two outs and the bases loaded, a dropped fly ball in right field allowed all three runners to score and the Lakers reclaimed the lead. GVSU would add single tallies in each of the next two innings on RBI knocks from
Josh C. Smith in the fourth and
Alex Mandeville in the fifth.
After six-up and six-down to start his day, Peters walked the first two of the sixth.
Alex Licata took over and got the first two outs, but a walk and infield single allowed UMSL to push a run across. Licata got out of the inning without any further damage and
Kyle Lawson worked around a two-out walk for his third save of the season and second in as many outings.
It was two out magic again to start the second game's scoring. Mandeville slapped a two-out single up the middle to plate a pair of Lakers in the top of the second, but the Tritons responded with a two-run home run from Derrick Freeman in the home half. In the third, again with two outs, Blake-Jones chopped a single into left field to drive home
Nolan Anspaugh and put the Lakers back in front.
Blake Dahlstrom got his first win (1-2) of the season for the Lakers in game two, striking out 11 batters over five innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits and five walks.
Brett Nearing got the final three outs of the game for his first save of the season and Riley Pawelksi suffered the loss for UMSL, allowing four runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings on the hill.
After an unearned run tied the game for UMSL in the fourth, it was another two-out hit – this time by
Zach Berry – to put the Lakers in front yet again when he laced a liner into center field to bring home Gleason. The Lakers tacked on three more runs of insurance in the sixth to secure the doubleheader sweep.
The Lakers look to stay perfect on their spring break trip Thursday (March 8) when they take on regional foe Cedarville at 2:30 PM GVSULakers.com will have live stats available and stay tuned to @GVSUBaseball on Twitter for in-game updates.
