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ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Grand Valley State baseball team will host Ashland in a four-game GLIAC series beginning Friday at 4:00 PM. Games two and three will be played as a doubleheader on Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday's finale will feature a first pitch at 12:00 PM. The Lakers have played only two home games this season and Friday will be their first since March 30 against Spring Arbor. GVSU is set to end their regular season this weekend, but is searching for an opponent to play during the opening weekend (5/14-5/16). The GLIAC Tournament will begin Thursday, May 20 at Jackson Field, home of the Lansing Lugnuts.

The Lakers are tied for fourth place in the GLIAC Standings at 9-7 (.563) in league play. Due to the unbalance of games played, the league will use winning percentage as a tiebreaker for seeding in the GLIAC Tournament. Ashland sits in second place at 14-6 (.700), trailing league-leading Wayne State, 12-4 (.750), by one game.

GLIAC Standings

GVSU split last weekend in a tightly contested series at Davenport. The Lakers won a pair of one-run ballgames before the Panthers bounced back and took games three and four by scores of 5-2 and 12-8. Nick Rutkowski picked up the win in game one, tossing 6 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits, while Jared Skubic earned the save and came back the next day to receive the win in game two. Skubic threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings against Davenport and currently holds a 15 1/3 scoreless innings streak. The GVSU pitching staff ranks second in the GLIAC in ERA at 4.91.
 
The Lakers clubbed .328 as a team on the weekend, led by Carter Smith and Ryan Blake-Jones with seven hits each. Christian Faust returned to the lineup on Sunday and went 3-for-5 with a pair of extra base hits to give the Lakers an added spark. As a team on the season, GVSU is batting .312 with a .392 OBP, 46 doubles, 10 triples, and seven home runs.
 
Ashland enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak and has won 10 out of their last 12 contests. The Eagles are coming off a sweep of Parkside in which they set the GLIAC record for runs scored in a game with 32. Alex Whipple, Garett Robberts, and Seth Schroeder all hit over .350 for Ashland, while reliever Perry Bewley boasts a 0.92 ERA in 29 1/3 innings on the year.
 
Follow @GVSUBaseball on Twitter for live in-game updates all weekend long.