AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Grand Valley State baseball team completed a doubleheader sweep, the third of the season, on Friday night against Minnesota-Duluth by scores of 7-4 and 5-0. The Lakers improve to 9-2 and are off to their best start since 2011, a team that finished the season 52-5.
Game 1 (W, 7-4) – 7 innings
The Lakers scored on a safety squeeze bunt in second inning before the offense went stagnant for three straight innings. Minnesota Duluth would club a three-run homerun in the third and add a run in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead into the sixth. GVSU would get one back in the sixth to cut the deficit to 4-2 on a RBI single by
Nathan Bonter to left center. In the seventh inning, down to their last out with runners on second and third, senior
Anthony Cocco laced a ball up the middle, scoring
Christian Faust and
Connor Grice to tie the game at 4-4. After a walk and hit by pitch, the bases were loaded and Bonter hit a groundball that went five-hole on the second baseman, which emptied the bases and gave GVSU a 7-4 lead.
Ben Thomas (2-0) earned the win, tossing six inning, while allowing seven hits, four runs, three walks, and striking out five. Junior
Michael Barno was credited with the save, throwing a scoreless seventh inning.
Cocco, Blake-Jones, and
Nathan Logan each had two hits to lead the Laker offense.
Game 2 (W, 5-0) – 7 innings
Junior
Nick Shaw (2-1) was lights out in game two, throwing six innings and allowing just three hits and three walks, while striking out 14 batters, which tied a school record set by Kyle Teague back in 2013.
Bonter opened up the scoring in the third inning with a two-run single to left field and added another run-scoring single in the fourth, while Blake-Jones got in on the action, driving in Grice on a single up the middle to push the Lakers lead to 4-0. Faust singled to left in the fifth to score
Blake Vershum to increase the margin to 5-0.
Faust, Cocco, and Bonter each had two hits with Bonter driving in three runs.
The Lakers will be back in action tomorrow afternoon with a double-header against Sioux Falls beginning at 2:45.
