ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Grand Valley State baseball team used stellar pitching to sweep a doubleheader with the Ashland Eagles on Saturday at the GVSU Baseball Field. GVSU won game one, 6-1, before hanging on for a 4-3 victory in game two. The Lakers improve to 16-13 overall and 12-7 in GLIAC play with the two wins and Ashland falls to 19-15 overall and 14-9 in league play.
GAME 1: W, 6-1
The Lakers got another strong pitching performance as
Mark Scannell improved to 4-0 on the year, tossing 6 1/3 innings, allowing just three hits and one run, while striking out three.
Sam Leck came on to get the final two outs of the ballgame to preserve the win.
For the second straight game, the Lakers jumped on the board in the first inning.
Christian Faust ripped a two-out double to left before
Ryan Blake-Jones singled to score Faust. After a
Joe Laudont walk,
Kyle Nott plated another run on a base hit to left field, scoring Blake-Jones. The Lakers added another run in the first as Laudont scored on an error by the shortstop to go up 3-0.
In the bottom half of the second, GVSU added to their lead.
Anthony Cocco led off the inning with a base hit and later scored on a
Parker Murdie single up the middle. Blake-Jones led off the third inning with a monster homerun to left field which increased the GVSU lead to 5-0 after three innings of play.
Cade Stanton crossed the plate on a wild pitch in the fourth inning which was plenty of run support for the Laker pitching staff.
Blake Jones led the Laker offense, going 3-for-3 with two runs and two RBI including a home run, while
Carter Smith went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
GAME 2: W, 4-3
Austin Brown made it three consecutive quality starts for GVSU starting pitching as the freshman threw six innings, allowing just four hits, one run, and striking out five en route to his second win of the season.
Nick Shaw threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, while
Jared Skubic closed the game down for his fourth save on the year.
After two scoreless frames, the Lakers had their first three batters reach base in the bottom of the third. Stanton doubled, Cocco walked, and
Ryan Lorber executed a squeeze bunt to score Stanton. Smith and Murdie would each drive in runs on back-to-back at-bats on a sac fly and an RBI groundout to give the Lakers a 3-0 advantage.
Ashland would finally get to Brown in the sixth inning, scoring a run on an RBI double to cut the Laker lead to 3-1. GVSU answered right back in the bottom half of the inning as Faust doubled to lead off the inning and later scored on a wild pitch to move the score to 4-1.
The Eagles plated two runs in the seventh to make it a one-run game and loaded the bases in the eighth inning, but Shaw recorded a huge strikeout to end the threat. Skubic entered in the ninth and worked around a leadoff single to secure the win for the Lakers.
