AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Grand Valley State baseball team split a doubleheader with Sioux Falls on Saturday evening, winning game one 7-1, before dropping the nightcap 10-4. The Lakers move to 10-3 on the season and will play a single nine inning contest with Wayne State College tomorrow at 12:45.
 
Game 1 (W, 7-1) – 7 innings
 
Freshman Austin Brown made his first career start and was lights out, throwing a complete game, while allowing just five hits, one run, no walks, and striking out five batters. Brown has a miniscule 0.79 ERA through 11 innings pitched to begin his freshman campaign.
 
The Lakers began the scoring in the first inning when senior Joe Laudont singled to the opposite field to score Christian Faust. GVSU would then add four more in the second, highlighted by a two-run blast to left field off the bat of Jordan Chandler. Senior Anthony Cocco also knocked an RBI triple down the line, scoring senior Stephen Pim. Freshman Nathan Logan doubled down the line in the fifth to score Laudont and increase the Laker lead to 6-0 before senior Parker Murdie would score on a wild pitch and an error in the sixth inning to make it 7-0.
 
Laudont led the Lakers with three hits, while Chandler had a team-high two RBI.
 
Game 2 (L, 10-4) – 7 innings
 
Sioux Falls bounced back in game two, scoring three runs in the first inning and adding another in the second to jump out to a 4-1 lead. The Lakers would answer, scoring two runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Nathan Bonter and Logan to cut the deficit to 4-3. The Cougars scored two more in the fifth and sixth innings to increase their lead to 8-3. Murdie singled to center to score Pim in the sixth to make it 8-4, however Sioux Falls scored two more runs in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach.
 
Keaghan Sutliff (0-1) was tagged with the loss, while Joseph Huesing, Nathan Wargolet, and Anthony Zurke all pitched in relief for the Lakers.