ALLENDALE, Mich. - The race to the end of the regular season started on Friday as the Davenport baseball team began a tough four-game road series at Grand Valley State. Both teams control their own destiny when it comes to seeing who will compete for the top spot in the conference. DU maintained first place for another day as they beat the fourth-place Lakers 4-3 at the GVSU Baseball Field in a game which took just 2:26 to play and featured solid pitching and defense.

Davenport has now won four straight against Grand Valley State dating back to last season and with the win improved to 24-19 overall and 12-5 in the conference. GVSU entered the game ranked third in the NCAA Midwest Regional rankings while DU is fourth.

Derrick Edington bounced back from a subpar outing last time out against Indianapolis to improve to 4-4 on the mound this season. The Lakers were able to get some traffic on the basepaths but the senior from Pickford, Michigan held his own and lasted 6.1 innings. It was his second longest start of the season and he allowed two or fewer earned runs in a start for the sixth time that lasted at least four innings. Edington struck out six and allowed six hits. Carson Fischer earned his first save of the season as he closed out the final 2.2 innings. He allowed just one hit, a two-out solo homer in the ninth inning, and walked none with two strikeouts.

Cade Stanton gave GVSU a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a RBI groundout as he beat out a double play opportunity to score Spencer Nelson. The Panthers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. Christian Petre singled to lead off the inning and Nolan Anspaugh was plunked to put runners on first and second. Gaetano Vallone executed a sacrifice bunt to move both runners up 90 feet and into scoring position. Noah Marcoux grounded out to first but was credited with a RBI as Petre scored to tie the game and move Anspaugh to third. Ben Mets delivered a clutch two-out RBI double to right center just out of the reach of center fielder Nelson who dove to attempt a catch.

The next 11 batters were retired before Vallone singled to left with two outs in the seventh inning. Vallone stole second but it would not matter as Marcoux battled at the plate and on the eighth pitch with a 3-2 count lifted a home run to left for the 4-1 lead. Marcoux homered for the ninth time this season and took over the team lead in that category.

GVSU got one run back in the seventh as Nelson scored on a one-out RBI single by Logan. Fischer came in to replace Edington at that point and got the last two batters of the inning. The next 11 batters were retired before Christian Faust hit a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to make it 4-3. Fischer shook that off and got the Lakers most dangerous hitter Logan to fly out to right field to end the game.

The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader tomorrow (Apr. 30) beginning at 1:05 PM.