GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport baseball team has put themselves in position to battle for a third consecutive GLIAC regular season championship after a four-game sweep of Parkside last weekend. The Panthers find themselves one game back of first-place Wayne State with nine games left in the regular season. This week's test will be five games against Grand Valley State, who is currently in third place, two games behind the Panthers. The Panthers will also finish the regular season with four games at Wayne State. The next two weeks should be fun and far from easy as DU will certainly need to EARN another title.

WEEKEND WRAP UP
It was a thorough and convincing sweep of Parkside last week. The Panthers outscored the Rangers, 46-17, and batted .367 as a team. Davenport slugged .576 and reached base at a .462 clip. The Panthers also drew 22 walks and struck out 17 times for a great ratio. The pitching staff helped bolster their ERA with a 3.71 in the series which included a complete game by James Kohl. The staff tossed 34 innings and allowed 32 hits and 14 walks with 48 strikeouts. Khale Showers and Gaetano Vallone each drove in 10 runs and batted over .600. Vallone went 9-for-15 with seven runs scored, three doubles, and two sacrifice flies. Tyler McKinstry got his first win as a Panther on Sunday going five innings and allowing seven hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. Kohl pitched tremendously in game one on Friday with seven great innings, no walks, and a career-high 11 strikeouts.

GLIAC WEEKLY AWARDS
The Panthers had a clean sweep of the conference weekly awards as Showers was named GLIAC Player of the Week and Carson Fischer earned GLIAC Pitcher of the Week.

Showers went on a tear this weekend against Parkside going 10-for-16 at the plate with seven runs scored, two doubles, one home run, and 10 RBI. He slugged .938 for the series and helped DU improve their current win streak to seven games. They have also scored double-digit runs in all of those games. Showers tied a season-high with three hits on both Saturday and Sunday. He drove in a season-high five runs on Saturday in the 10-4 victory. He tied the team lead with his sixth home run of the season in game one on Friday and also drove in three runs. He has hit safely in six straight games heading into this week's games against Grand Valley State.

Fischer struck out a career-high 12 Rangers in a 10-2 win in game two on Friday. He threw seven innings to tie a season-high for innings pitched and allowed five hits, no earned runs, and walked just one. He lowered his season ERA to 3.76 and picked up his fourth win of the season and ninth of his career.

LAST MEETING
The Panthers had the largest margin of victory in the all-time series against the Lakers with a final score of 16-4 back on March 28 in Caledonia. DU also won for the seventh time in the last eight meetings against GVSU. The Panthers jumped all over Allan Thorington of the Lakers with eight runs against lefty in just 2.1 innings. Thorington came into the game allowing 10 hits in 14 innings and allowed 11 hits in those 2.1 innings of work with no walks and one strikeout. He struck out the first batter he faced and then gave up a hit by pitch followed by four straight singles in the first inning. DU took a 2-0 lead at that point and left the bases loaded.

The Lakers got one run back in the second on a RBI single by Ayden VanEnkevort, but the offense was just getting started for the Panthers. Caleb Anspaugh homered to right center with one out in the second inning for his first long ball of the season. Gaetano Vallone doubled to right up against the wall and then Ben Mets drove a RBI single up the middle for a 4-1 lead.

Devon Nettles got his first start of the season and held the Lakers in check through three innings. Davenport would score four times in the third inning to open things up. The inning started with an error by GVSU and then two wonderful bunt singles by Coltrane Rubner and Logan Todd. Anspaugh smoked a ball down the left field line with the bases loaded to score a pair for a 6-1 lead. Mets then had a one-out RBI single through the left side of the infield. Will Goebel replaced Thorington on the mound at that point. Khale Showers reached on a fielder's choice and got a RBI to make it 8-1.

Nettles ran into some trouble in the fourth when the Lakers had their best inning scoring three runs on five hits. Three straight hits followed by a groundout marked the end for Nettles. Cade Kontny entered for the Panthers and he allowed two inherited runners to score. Nettles finished with 3.1 innings and three earned runs to go with a walk and two strikeouts.

Davenport got those runs right back scoring five times in the fourth inning. Rubner had a two-RBI triple to left center and Vallone also had a RBI triple to left center. Mets and Todd also had a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 13-4.

Mets drove in his fourth run in the sixth inning and the scoring concluded in the sixth with an error and wild pitch. Mets finished 4-for-5 and scored two runs. Anspaugh was 3-for-5 with four runs scored and three RBI and was shy a triple shy of the cycle. Miko Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with a run and RBI and stole a base. Kontny (2-0) got the win with 3.2 relief innings and fared well allowing no runs with a walk and strikeout. Logan Bursick-Harrington and Spencer Vainavicz each got an inning of work and each walked one with three strikeouts.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Grand Valley State enters the series with an overall record of 26-12 and 13-8 in the GLIAC. The Lakers appeared in the initial Midwest Regional rankings released by the NCAA. The first week does not rank the teams numerically, but just lists in alphabetical order who is being considered for a potential regional berth after the GLIAC Tournament.

The Lakers have a good hitting club with a .323 batting average and have scored 277 runs. Jonas Gulbrandsen leads the team with a .367 batting average with 40 hits in 109 at-bats. Spencer Nelson has been the team's top power source with a team-high six home runs. He has driven in 18 runs and scored 38 times with a .350 batting average. Kyle Nott leads the team with 43 runs scored and 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts while batting .326 with 47 hits in 144 at-bats. Nathan Logan leads the team with 53 hits in 153 at-bats and is batting .346 with eight doubles, three triples, and four home runs.

Nick Rutkowski leads the pitching staff with a 1.50 ERA and 8-1 record in 60 innings. The Lakers have a team ERA of 4.83 with 245 strikeouts. Rutkowski has made nine starts with five complete games and one shutout. He has fanned 42 batters and walked 12. Colby Phipps has also put together a solid season on the mound with a 6-2 record and 3.83 ERA in 51.2 innings with just eight walks and 33 punchouts.

LIVE COVERAGE
Friday, April 28 vs. Grand Valley State (3:00 PM) - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Saturday, April 29 at Grand Valley State (11:00 AM - DH) - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Sunday, April 30 vs. Grand Valley State (12:00 PM - Senior Day) - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Wednesday, May 3 at Grand Valley State (3:00 PM) - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats