CALEDONIA, Mich. - The final weekend of the regular season got off to a good start for the Davenport baseball team with a 12-4 win over Parkside on Friday. The Panthers are trying to make a push towards a conference championship sitting in third place. DU improved to 23-14 overall and 16-9 in the GLIAC with today's win. Grand Valley State is in second place at 13-7, but will not play anymore conference games. DU is just a few percentage points behind the Lakers and Northwood is sitting in first place at 17-8 having won today at Wayne State by a final of 13-5. 

It did not begin as scripted as the Rangers scored twice in the top of the first inning off James Kohl. The big swing happened with one out when Austin Emanuel hit a fly ball to right field and Gaetano Vallone battled the sun and lost losing it in the glare and the ball dropped for an unlucky double. Parkside took advantage with a sacrifice fly and a RBI single for the 2-0 lead.

The Panthers got one back in the bottom of the first as Christian Petre tripled to left center with one out and scored on a grounder to first by Noah Marcoux. The Panthers tied it up to begin the third inning as Nolan Anspaugh hit a no-doubt home run to left. It was his 10th home run of the season and he is one behind teammate Marcoux for the team and conference lead. Petre followed with a single and Marcoux drove in his second run of the game with a double to left center and a 3-2 lead. Travis Harvey laced a single to center to score Marcoux on the next at-bat for a 4-2 lead.

Harvey made it 5-2 in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly but the Panthers left the bases loaded to keep it close. Kohl was cruising through the Parkside lineup at this point and retired the side in the second, third and fifth innings. He also faced the minimum in the sixth as Emanuel led off with a single but Carlos Arteaga grounded into a double play and Dominic Esposito grounded to second to end the inning.

Davenport broke it open in the seventh with five runs on seven hits to take a 12-2 lead. Vallone had a sacrifice fly after Nolan Bryant led off with his sixth triple of the season. Petre had a RBI single followed by a RBI single by Harvey, a RBI double by Carson Eby and a RBI single by Ben Mets.

Kohl finished with seven solid innings to get the win improving to 6-2. He set a season-high with 10 strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Derrick Edington finished the game and allowed two runs on a two-run home run in the ninth by Esposito. 

Petre tied a school record with five hits and attempted to make history in the eighth but popped out in his sixth at-bat. DU collected 18 hits and scored double-digit runs for the 14th time this season. The first four batters in the order went 12-for-20 with eight runs and nine RBI. Anspaugh finished 3-for-6 with three runs and two RBI. Harvey was 3-for-4 with a team-high three RBI. Kamrin Markwardt and Bryant also each had two hits.