ROSEMONT, Ill. – The No. 3 Grand Valley State Lakers begin the 2020 season at the Lewis Dome Tournament with four games this weekend inside The Dome at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex. The Lakers will play two games Friday (Feb. 21) and two games Saturday. The full schedule, including field information and participating teams, can be found here.
 
The Lakers return the top three RBI producers in the GLIAC from a season ago in Lydia Goble, Nikoma Holmen and Taylor Rieger. Goble, the reigning GLIAC Freshman of the Year and Holmen, a third team All-American in 2019, are on this season's NFCA National Player of the Year Watchlist. Watch the GVSU Softball 2020 season preview.
 
Friday will be an early start for the Lakers, facing off against William Jewell at 10 AM ET/9 CT before facing Winona State at 12 ET/11 CT.
 
William Jewell is off to a 1-4 start this season, playing in the Kelly Laas Memorial Tournament in Minnesota last weekend. The Cardinals had three different pitchers make multiple appearances in the circle through the five games while Ashlyn Sutton (4-10, RBI, R), Emily Hoover (5-13, 3 doubles) and Allison Rawls (4-11, RBI, R) are pacing the offense in the early goings.
 
Winona State has won their first two games of the year, sweeping a doubleheader from Grand View with eight runs in each game. Rylee Stout crushed four home runs in the two games, going 5-7 with six RBI. The Warriors hit eight home runs across the two convincing wins. They hit .415 as a team and went 2-2 stealing bases. Their hot-hitting offense will be an early test for the young Laker pitching staff.
 
Saturday, GVSU will face Illinois-Springfield at 2:30 ET/1:30 CT and Lindenwood at 4:30 ET/3:30 CT.
 
Illinois-Springfield went 3-1 against Ferris State in a four-game series last weekend, scoring 31 runs in four games. Lakyn Wagoner drove in 10 runs, going 7-13 at the dish, while five other Prairie Stars also have multiple RBI in the early going. Two of the four pitchers they used have ERAs under 3 with Addison Bryant leading the way with a 2-1 record and 2.56 ERA.
 
Lindenwood went 3-1 in the Cactus Classic to open the season last weekend. Whitney Wendel leads the team with five RBI and has also scored five times after going 7-15 at the dish. Three other Lions have four RBI but, while the offense was impressive, the team made 14 errors in the Classic. The Laker offense has no problem putting the ball in play, so defense could be a key element in the Lakers' final game in The Dome.
 
GVSULakers.com will provide live stats for every game while @GVSUSoftball on Twitter has live updates throughout the games as well.