ALLENDALE, Mich. — The Grand Valley State Lakers baseball team dropped a 10-7 decision to the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals in the opener of a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GIAC) four-game series Friday afternoon at the GVSU Baseball Field. The Lakers rallied to tie the game in the eighth only to see the Cardinals regain the lead in the ninth to render the comeback moot. GVSU falls to 23-18 on the season and 12-9 in GLIAC play while the Cardinals improve to 5-15 in league play and 20-21 overall.
 
The Lakers took a first-inning lead on a two-out single from Ryan Blake-Jones, scoring Nolan Anspaugh to put the Lakers in front. A bunt single, compounded by an error, sparked a five-run fourth inning for SVSU to catapult them into the lead. They'd tack on another run in the fifth.
 
Jacob Gleason began the comeback effort with a three-run homer, his eighth of the year, in the home fifth and Ricky Clark drove home Josh C. Smith the next frame with a single to get within a run. A sacrifice fly gave the Cardinals a two-run cushion in the seventh but, with two outs in the home eighth, Zach Berry laced a triple to dead center to drive home a pair and tie the game.
 
Saginaw Valley would respond with a three-run ninth, sparked by a hit batter that led off the inning. Brendan Nearing suffered the loss, falling to 0-1 on the year after working the ninth inning. Erik Fritz blew the save in the eighth but earned the win (2-1) for his one inning of work and Caleb Sumerville was able to strand the bases loaded in the home ninth to hold off the Lakers and end a 13-game losing streak for the Cardinals.
 
The Lakers look to bounce back in a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1:00 PM. Both games will air live on ESPN3 with live coverage available on GVSULakers.com and @GVSUBaseball on Twitter. This is the final home weekend of the Lakers regular season, with one more road weekend before the GLIAC Tournament in two weeks.