SANDUSKY, Ohio – No. 20 Grand Valley State softball advances to the 2022 GLIAC Tournament championship game with two wins in Saturday's (May 7) opening rounds at Sports Force Parks. The Lakers ran away with an 8-0, run-rule win in the quarterfinals against the Parkside Rangers then downed 5-seed Purdue Northwest, 5-2, in the semifinals. The top-seeded Lakers will face 2-seed Saginaw Valley in the title game at 10 AM on Sunday (May 8).
 
Due to rain in the area, Friday was rained out and forced the tournament to shift to a single-elimination format with the quarterfinals and semifinals played Saturday before Sunday's championship.
 
The Lakers jumped out to an early lead in the quarterfinal when, after the first two batters of the home first were retired, Lydia Goble smashed a ball in the left-center gap that trickled to the fence, allowing her to race all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. Taylor Rieger followed up with a line drive triple over the left fielder's head, then scored on a throwing error to the third base bag to give the Lakers the early 2-0 lead.
 
Paige Ligocki laced a two-out single into left in the third to add to the lead before the Lakers broke things open in the fourth on an RBI single from Rieger, two-run blistering triple into the gap by Morgan Spicer and a Bailey Thatcher sacrifice fly.
 
Genesis Eggart (W, 14-1) pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing just one hit but four walks and three hit batters while striking out five. She twice worked out of two-on, less-than-two-out jams to keep the Rangers off the scoreboard.
 
The Lakers struck early again in the semifinals. Kaitlin Lynch started the inning with a triple to left then later scored on a single through the right side by Goble. A few batters later, Spicer worked a bases-loaded walk to push another run across. They'd tack on three more in the fourth, once on an error, then Goble tripled to drive home yet another run and Rieger supplied a sacrifice fly to bring home Goble.
 
Hannah Beatus (W, 18-2) was sensational outside of one blip in the fifth inning. She struck out 13 and walked just one, allowing two runs in the fifth on a bloop single, walk then ground ball placed perfectly over the third base bag down the line to plate a pair. Outside of that moment, she was virtually untouchable in her first post-season performance of 2022.
 
The Lakers look for a 16^th win in a row and fourth straight GLIAC Tournament title Sunday. The game can be streamed live through the GLIAC website with Jake Levy providing play-by-play for the stream of the championship bout.