ALLENDALE, Mich. - The stage has been set for a showdown starting on Friday at Wayne State after the Panthers wrapped up their season series with Grand Valley State on Wednesday with a 2-1 win. The win keeps the Panthers two back in the GLIAC standings at 19-7 with four games remaining in Detroit against the Warriors. DU won 5-of-6 this year against the Lakers and four of those came by one run. Davenport has played one-run games this season with a 7-9 record.
Today's win ensures that the Panthers will have at least a .500 record during the regular season (25-21) for the 12th straight season. In addition, DU is now 17-8 in the all-time series against the Lakers and are 8-2 in the last 10 meetings.
Davenport got their two runs in the first and second inning off Allan Thorington, who performed much better than his last outing against the Panthers in a loss back on March 28 in Caledonia.
Coltrane Rubner singled to start the game and
Gaetano Vallone doubled to right center as Rubner moved to third. The damage was limited though as
Ben Mets hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Rubner and that's all that came across in the first.
Tyler Mosher led off the second inning with a double to right center and took third on a passed ball. Again the damage was limited as
Miko Rodriguez walked and then
Carson Price had a RBI single to center for a 2-0 lead. Thorington got the next three batters out to stay down just two runs.
Jared Schwartz took the ball for Davenport and in the second inning the Lakers loaded the bases with two outs. Schwartz got a big strikeout of Ayden VanEnkevort to keep the 2-0 advantage.
Grand Valley State got a run in the fourth inning as Connor Schuman doubled to right to lead off and advanced to third with two outs. VanEnkevort came through this time though with a RBI single through the right side.
Neither team really threatened until the Lakers put runners on second and third with two outs in the sixth.
Cade Kontny was on the mound for Davenport and got a fly ball to right center. Rubner made a game-saving, diving catch to keep the score at 2-1.
The Lakers had one more chance in the ninth against
Spencer Vainavicz. Kyle Nott had a bunt single with one out and Logan Anderson was hit by a pitch with two outs to put Nott in scoring position. Conner McCormack drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases, but Vainavicz got a fly ball to right off the bat of Gulbrandsen on the first pitch to end the game.
The Lakers left 13 runners on base compared to eight for the Panthers. Schwartz went five innings to earn the win moving to 2-3. He walked three and struck out five in 87 pitches. Kontny tossed two innings and allowed one hit.
Alex Lord threw two-thirds of an inning before handing the ball to Vainavicz. He picked up his third save of the season with a walk and two strikeouts.
Vallone had the only multi-hit game for DU going 2-for-4. Mets moved his season RBI total to 32 with his sacrifice fly in the first. The series at Wayne State starts on Friday with a 3:00 PM single game. The Panthers dropped both games of a doubleheader at Wayne State back on March 24 to start league play. Davenport has a 14-6 record all-time against the Warriors but need to win 3-of-4 in the weekend series to get at least a share of their third straight GLIAC championship.
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