CALEDONIA, Mich. – The Grand Valley State baseball team defeated Davenport, 5-4, in a tightly contested ballgame on Friday evening. The Lakers improve to 12-11 overall and 8-5 in GLIAC play, while Davenport falls to 16-13 overall and 9-8 in league play. The two teams will meet again tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 PM.
 
The Lakers jumped to an early 3-0 lead after five of the first six batters reached based on singles. Carter Smith and Parker Murdie led the game off before Ryan Blake-Jones drove in Smith. Joe Laudont and Kyle Nott then executed back-to-back bunt singles, scoring Murdie and Blake-Jones. Davenport would get a run back in the bottom half, but the Lakers answered right back as Smith singled, advanced on an error, and scored on a Murdie single through the right side to go up 4-1.
 
Neither team scored until the seventh when the Lakers tact on another run on a Smith RBI single scoring Nathan Logan. Davenport then climbed back into the game, plating three runs in the bottom half and cut the deficit to 5-4. The Panthers threatened again in the eighth inning but reliever Jared Skubic held Davenport off the board and came out and finished the game in the ninth inning.
 
Nick Rutkowski was credited with the win, throwing 6 1/3 innings, while allowing six hits and four runs. Skubic earned the save as he went 2 2/3 innings without allowing a run.
 
Smith finished 3-for-3 at the plate and Murdie extended his hitting streak to 14 games, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.