GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport baseball team will be jockeying for position in the upcoming GLIAC Tournament this week with five regular-season games remaining against Grand Valley State. The two teams have met once already this season one week ago with a 6-5 walk-off win by the Panthers. It was an eventful eighth and ninth innings when eight of the game's 11 runs were scored. In the ninth, the Lakers scored three times without a hit to tie the game at 5-5. That set the stage for the walk-off victory as Connor Hnilo singled with one out and stole second while moving to third on a throwing error. With two outs, Anthony Aloisio ripped a single up the middle to plate Hnilo for the 6-5 triumph. The teams will play in Caledonia tonight at 6 PM and then conclude the season series with four games in Allendale.

LAST WEEKEND'S ACTION
The Panthers split four games at The Farm against Wayne State and currently sit at 17-28 overall and 12-13 in the GLIAC. Davenport maintain fourth place in the conference standings and are looking up at GVSU who are 14-11 and 22-22 overall. DU made it back-to-back, walk-off wins on Friday with a 5-4 decision over Wayne State. Trailing 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, Logan Todd started the rally with a single through the left side on a 2-0 pitch. Michael Tchavdarov followed with a RBI triple into the right field corner to tie the game on a 0-2 pitch. Hnilo delivered the game-winning hit into left field as Tchavdarov scored the winning run. Connor Foley got the win in relief (1-0) with three strong innings allowing just one hit and no runs with five strikeouts.

The Panthers fell 5-2 in game one on Saturday. After trailing 4-0, Josh Robinson and Aloisio had back-to-back RBI doubles to right center in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 4-2. The Warriors scored one insurance run in the seventh inning on a throwing error and Karter Fitzpatrick went all seven innings for WSU to get the win. He improved to 7-2 on the season and struck out seven. Tyler McKinstry (1-4) took the loss as DU's starter going five innings and allowing four runs with a walk and a season-high eight strikeouts. DU won 14-12 in a slugfest in game two on Saturday. Tchavdarov and Aloisio both hit solo home runs in the first inning and DU kept a lead until the fourth inning when CJ Maury had a RBI double to make it 4-3. DU responded with four runs in their half of the fourth. Two runs came across on an error followed by Coltrane Rubner's RBI single and Tyler Mosher being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Wayne State got back to within 9-7 in the seventh, but the Panthers scored five times in the bottom of the seventh to make it 14-7. Jared Evans recorded his third RBI of the game with a single to right and Rubner also had a two-RBI single through the right side. Rubner finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI. Todd finished 3-for-5 with a triple and a run scored. Aloisio tied the single-game school record with four walks and also scored four runs. Jack Snow (1-1) got the win in relief of starter Jerad Berkenpas. He went 2.2 innings and allowed two earned runs with a walk and two strikeouts.

Wayne State took the final game of the weekend series 12-1 on Sunday. Ashton Potts got the win for the Warriors going 6.1 innings and allowed three hits and no earned runs with eight walks and four strikeouts. DU used seven pitchers in the contest that totaled five walks and nine strikeouts. Austin VanderMarkt (3-2) took the loss as the starter going four innings and allowing four earned runs with two walks and three punchouts. Robinson walked three times to extend his season on-base streak to 44 games.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Carson Fischer recorded seven strikeouts over six innings in a no-decision on Friday and currently is ranked fourth all-time at DU with 184 strikeouts. Next player to catch is Grant Wolfram (195) who is currently playing AAA at Round Rock in the Texas Rangers organization. Fischer has posted a 3.92 career ERA in 46 appearances and 26 starts with 211.1 innings under his belt. Hnilo has been a pleasant surprise in the lineup this season after playing in just five games before 2024. This season, he is batting .347 which ranks second on the team and has made 27 starts at second and third base. Hnilo during the month of April batted .413 with 26 hits in 63 at-bats. He scored 19 runs and collected four doubles, one homer, and 13 RBI. He also reached base at a .525 clip with 11 walks and five hit by pitch. Davenport as a squad batted .299 (178-of-596) during April with 15 home runs and a .405 on-base percentage. Tchavdarov also had a great month batting .368 (28-of-76) with 24 runs scored, five doubles, three triples, three home runs, eight steals, and 13 RBI. Aloisio in 18 games during April belted five home runs and drove in 27 runs with a .661 slugging percentage and 16 walks against just six strikeouts at the dish.

SERIES HISTORY
Davenport leads the all-time series by a 18-9 margin and are 8-4 at the friendly confines of the Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex. DU is 8-2 in the last 10 meetings with the Lakers including the walk-off win last Wednesday. The Panthers are averaging 6.85 runs in the all-time series and have hit double-digit runs on six occasions. The most runs in a game was 16-4 back on March 28, 2023. Fischer has made three appearances against the Lakers in his career with a 2.87 ERA in 15.2 innings. He's allowed 19 hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Cade Kontny has five appearances versus the Lakers with a 2-0 record and 2.81 ERA in 16 innings. He has allowed 12 hits with five walks and seven strikeouts. Mosher has eight hits in 24 at-bats during a 10-game span against GVSU with three doubles and four RBI. Rubner is batting .361 (13-of-36) versus Laker pitching in eight games with seven runs scored, two doubles, one triple, one home run, and three RBI.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Grand Valley State has dropped four of their last five games albeit with three of those losses coming against league champion Saginaw Valley State on the road last weekend. The Lakers lost a pair of one-run games in game two on Friday (3-2) and game two on Saturday (12-11). They did pick up a 10-5 win in game one on Saturday. Mike Morawski tied the team lead in wins (5-2) by going six innings and allowing two runs on three walks with four strikeouts. Morawski took over the GLIAC lead with a 3.12 season ERA in the process. The Lakers had four doubles and two home runs in the contest. Jake Rydquist hit a two-run bomb in the second inning and Brendan Guciardo went deep in the fifth inning on a solo shot. Kyle Nott went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI. Guciardo finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI. The Lakers have the top pitching staff ERA in the GLIAC at 4.95. Nick Rutkowski is currently third in the league with a 3.47 ERA and his 59.2 innings pitched is currently fifth in the GLIAC. Nott is a menace at the top of the order for opposing teams. He ranks seventh in the conference in walks (24), fourth in stolen bases (12), and seventh in on-base percentage (.468). Jonas Gulbrandsen is one of just two players in the GLIAC with double-digit home runs (10) and ranks second in dingers. He also ranks sixth in hits (58), seventh in RBI (36), and third in slugging percentage (.581).

LIVE COVERAGE
Wednesday, May 1 - Grand Valley State - 6:00 PM - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Thursday, May 2 - at Grand Valley State - 2:00 PM - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Saturday, May 4 - at Grand Valley State (DH) - 1:00 PM - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats
Sunday, May 5 - at Grand Valley State - 1:00 PM - Live Video (FloSports) - Live Stats