The Grand Valley State baseball team opened GLIAC action at Purdue Northwest with a 7-1 victory Friday (Mar. 26). The league-leading Lakers, now 4-6 overall and 1-0 in GLIAC play, will square off against Purdue Northwest Saturday (Mar. 27) in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.

Game one of the four-game series was moving along with a combined three hits through seven innings of action, however, the Lakers got on the board first with two runs on four hits in the top of the seventh. 1B Ryan Blake-Jones singled to open the inning and moved to second on a sac bunt from DH Joe Laudont. Catcher Ryan Lorber delivered a two-out double to score Blake-Jones  and RF Nate Logan doubled home Lorber to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead. GVSU added a single run in the eighth when 3B Christian Faust walked and scored on a Blake-Jones double to left. The Lakers broke the game open with four runs in the ninth on two hits. Faust, Blake-Jones and Laudont each drove in runs to give GVSU a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom half of the ninth. Purdue Northwest scored their lone run on two hits in the ninth.

Freshman Nick Rutkowski picked up his first collegiate win with the complete-game victory, yielding one run on four hits with five strikeouts. Rutkowski, who got 13 groundouts and seven fly outs, threw just 108 pitches in his fourth career start. GVSU collected nine hits, led by CF Carter Smith (2-for-5) and Blake-Jones (2-for-3) who each tallied two hits. Blake-Jones added two RBI and Faust scored two runs.