CALEDONIA, Mich. - The final home game of the season is always special but when you are in the middle of a heated chase towards a championship and up against a quality opponent it means that much more when you can pull out a victory. The Panthers finished up yesterday's game at Grand Valley State today and picked up a 8-7 win and then had a walk-off win in the ninth for a 5-4 triumph to get their third one-run win this weekend against the Lakers.

Davenport held a 8-7 lead through seven innings yesterday when rains came in Allendale and suspended the game. It was picked up at noon today as Logan Wynalda entered to pitch for GVSU. He retired the Panthers in order in the eighth and then Logan Bursick-Harrington came into pitch for DU in the bottom half. Logan Anderson was hit by a pitch with one out and then Conner McCormack singled to put two runners on base. Jonas Gulbrandsen beat out an infield single to load the bases and then the Panthers made the defensive play of the game. Brendan Guciardo hit a fly ball to Gaetano Vallone in center who made the catch and came up firing to the plate to throw out Anderson for the double play.

The Lakers got a one-out single by Justin Mansager in the ninth and took second on a wild pitch with two outs. Bursick-Harrington nailed down his fifth save of the season by getting a strike out of Kyle Nott to end the game.

Cade Kontny improved to 3-0 on the mound this season by throwing 4.2 relief innings of Isaac Van Dyke. Rylan Peets took the loss falling to 2-3 and gave up three earned runs in three innings. Vallone hit a three-run homer in the seven-run fourth inning. Carter Troncin and Josh Robinson also had a RBI single in the fourth. 

Davenport took a quick 1-0 lead in the regularly scheduled game with a leadoff homer off Mike Morawski. The lead grew to 3-0 in the third inning when DU scored on a double play and Khale Showers hit a RBI double to right.

Jake Rydquist cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth off Tyler McKinstry. The freshman would allow three runs to tie the game at 3, but fired four strong innings before that with four strikeouts. Alex Lord had a 2.2 inning relief appearance and did not allow a run with no walks and three strikeouts. DU answered in the bottom of the fifth as Coltrane Rubner scored from third on a balk by Nino Puckett for a 4-3 lead.

GVSU tied it again at 4 in the eighth as Mansager scored on a passed ball with two outs with Aaron Ball on the hill. Spencer Vainavicz started the ninth on the mound for DU and struck out two batters mixed in with a one-out single. Sam Leck entered in the eighth inning for GVSU and stranded two runners on base. He was back out for the ninth and gave up a one-out infield single to Ben Mets. Mets took second on a passed ball with two outs and then Troncin walked it off for the second time in the series with a double down the left field line to score Mets for the 5-4 victory.

Rubner had a season-high four hits and scored twice in the leadoff spot. He was the only Panther with multiple hits, but they did have 11 hits as a team. The teams will play one more game on Tuesday, May 2 in Allendale to conclude the season series.
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