DETROIT, Mich. - In the biggest city in our state on Sunday, the baseball team reached a season goal as they defeated Wayne State twice and claimed at least a share of the GLIAC regular season championship. The Panthers were able to take three-of-four in the series against the Warriors and are now 18-2. The Panthers can take the league title outright next weekend if they can beat Roosevelt once. Grand Valley State is 18-6 in the conference and have finished conference play after taking all four games at Purdue Northwest.
Game one was a 4-2 win and game two saw DU run away with a 12-3 victory. Davenport is now 33-12 overall and will play Illinois-Springfield on Tuesday at home beginning at 1 PM before the final GLIAC series at Roosevelt.
Adam Berghorst gave the Panthers a great outing in game one. He went 6.1 innings in the seven-inning contest and allowed two runs on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts. The Warriors did threat in the bottom of the seventh as they scored once on a Mason McGuire RBI single to make it 4-2.
Conor Gausselin came out of the bullpen and nailed down his fourth save of the season by getting the final two outs on an infield fly pop-up and a strikeout.
Justin Johnson got the scoring started with his eighth home run of the season in the third for a 1-0 lead. DU added to their lead in the fourth as a run scored on an error off the bat of
Sam Clay. Clay had an infield single and the throw allowed
Logan Todd to score on the two-base error.
Coltrane Rubner followed with a RBI double to left as Clay scored for the 3-0 advantage. The Warriors scored on a balk in the fifth and then
Michael Tchavdarov smacked a RBI double to left center in the sixth for the 4-1 lead.
Austin VanderMarkt improved to 6-0 this season in game two and got plenty of run support as Davenport had 12 runs on 15 hits off three Warrior pitchers. Macio Miller got the start for WSU, but did not make it out of the third inning. He went 2.1 innings and allowed four earned runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts. VanderMarkt meanwhile went 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs on seven hits with two walks and a season-high seven strikeouts.
Zach Hopman took it from there as he went the final 3.1 innings of scoreless pitching allowing just one hit with no walks and four strikeouts.
Johnson delivered two doubles in five at-bats in game two and scored twice with a RBI. Clay went 3-for-5 in the leadoff spot with a double, stolen base, two runs scored, and a RBI. Rubner collected three hits including a double with a stolen base and two RBI.
Cody Hultink was 3-for-3 with two walks, two runs scored, and a RBI.
Chase Kemp went 2-for-4 with a walk, run and RBI.
