HAMMOND, Ind. – The No. 21 Grand Valley State softball team swept a doubleheader at Purdue Northwest Friday (April 29) to end the regular season on a 13-game win streak. The Lakers won game one, 9-0, in five innings before holding on for a 3-2 win in game two. The Lakers enter post-season play with a 38-5 record and go 23-3 in GLIAC play.
The Lakers started hot in game one, scoring four runs in the first inning. A
Taylor Rieger two-run double highlighted the inning. Rieger was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the second to push another run across and the Lakers led 6-0 after two innings. They added a three-spot in the fourth inning when
Kelsey Komorous singled home two runs and
Jaye Guichelaar knocked in her first-career RBI with a groundout.
Hannah Beatus (W, 18-2) allowed just three hits in her five-inning, complete game shutout while striking out nine compared to one walk.
The Lakers got an unearned run in the top of the first in game two, but Purdue Northwest responded with a pair of runs in the second inning. Their lead held until the fifth, when the Lakers used four singles to see-saw back in front with a two-run inning.
Lydia Goble singled up the middle to drive in the tying run, one of her four hits in the game, before Rieger singled to center to bring home the go-ahead run.
Genesis Eggart (W, 13-1) allowed two runs on five hits. She struck out eight without walking a batter. The first two hitters reached in the seventh to put the tying run in scoring position, but Eggart induced a ground ball to get the lead runner, then a flyout and a called third strike to end the game with the potential tying run stranded at third.
Joanna Cirrincione hit safely in both games to extend her hitting streak to 17 and has now scored at least once in each of her last eight games. Rieger had four RBI on the day and has now driven in at least one run in six straight games.
The Lakers scheduled doubleheader at Parkside Saturday has been canceled, so the Lakers will next take the field in the GLIAC Tournament next Friday (May 6). The Lakers will be the one-seed in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament and will face 8-seed Parkside at 10 AM at Field 2 of Sports Force Park in Sandusky, Ohio.
