GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Davenport baseball team is creeping closer to the .500 mark (19-21) with 10 games left in the regular season. The Panthers will play Northwood today at 4:30 PM at the Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex and then again on April 28 in two weeks to conclude their non-conference slate. The team will also have a road series against league-leading Grand Valley State and finish up with a home series May 1-3 against Purdue Northwest.

Davenport erupted for a season-high 23 runs on 26 hits (fourth most in DU history) in Sunday's 23-8 win at Parkside to split the weekend series at two games apiece. The team scored seven runs in the first inning and then 10 more runs in the fourth inning. Aiden Warn had a career day going 4-for-4 and tying the school record with three home runs. He scored four times and drove in a season-high six runs. He reached base all five times with a walk added to his stat line. Travis Liford went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and had a double. Wyatt Epple slugged a home run as part of two hits and drove in three runs. Justin Johnson made it five home runs as a team going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs. Dylan Pawenski went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. He has driven in multiple runs in a game five of the last nine games. Davenport also homered five times in a game earlier this season at Illinois-Springfield (Mar. 7). DU also set a season-high with seven doubles in the contest by seven different players.

Gage Vota earned the win in relief (3-1) going 4 2/3 innings and allowing no earned runs with no walks and three strikeouts. Gabe Helder also pitched a clean inning with a walk and strikeout in the seventh. The Rangers had just two extra-base hits, including a Max Johnson homer in the sixth inning which drove in three runs.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Davenport was able to bat .362 as a team against the Rangers, while allowing a .280 batting average by the Rangers. Pawenski went 8-for-16 in the series with six runs scored and three RBIs. Warn batted .400 (6-15) with four home runs and a team-high nine RBIs to bring his season total to 33. Justin Johnson went 7-for-17 at the plate with four runs scored and seven RBIs. Sam Clay ignited the offense in the leadoff spot going 8-for-17 with five runs scored, three doubles, and four walks. The defense for DU was solid with a .979 fielding percentage and three errors committed.

The Panthers sported a 6.19 earned-run average against Parkside in 32 innings. The staff did an excellent job with just 10 walks allowed and struck out 19. Brayden Flanders tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings in the series with a win and allowed one hit with two strikeouts. Jaden Alberson went two scoreless innings with two punchouts and lowered his team-leading ERA on the season to 2.50 in 18 innings of work.

Davenport is maintaining the third-toughest schedule in Division II as of press time with their past opponents winning 63.7 percent of their games. The opponent this week in Northwood ranks 40th in the same category (55.7 percent).

This week, the Panthers are inside the top 20 in Division II in hit batters ranking 17th at 79 total. They also lead the GLIAC in the following categories: doubles (88), hit by pitch (76), and hits (438). Warn leads the league in walks with 34. Liford leads the conference with 17 doubles. Justin Johnson ranks second in total bases (100) and fourth in RBIs (43).

SERIES HISTORY
Davenport leads Northwood 16-12 in the all-time series with a majority of those games played when the Timberwolves were part of the GLIAC, before moving to the G-MAC on July 1, 2022. The last matchup while the teams were both in the GLIAC happened on May 28, 2021 with DU beating Northwood 16-1 in the NCAA regionals hosted by Lindenwood.

Since then, the Panthers have a record of 8-2 against NU, including a six-game win streak. The two teams last played to open the 2025 season in Johnson City, Tennessee. DU picked up the four-game sweep over the Timberwolves and allowed just eight runs in those four wins. The Panthers won 16-6 in the final game of the series behind 19 hits. Pawenski drove in two runs on a groundout in the first and an RBI single in the fourth. Carson Lindau drove in two runs with a double and scored once. Clay drove in two runs and scored twice. Austin VanderMarkt got the win on the mound going five innings and allowing one earned run with six strikeouts and no walks.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Northwood is currently 14-20 overall and hoping to avoid their first losing season (excluding COVID season in 2020) since 2014 when they finished 18-27 overall. The Timberwolves have been a fixture in recent NCAA regional play including last season when the team went 40-22 and advanced to the Division II World Series in Cary, North Carolina. They went on the road in the super regional to Indianapolis and won the best-of-3 series in the third game by a final score of 17-4.

Northwood sits at 11-9 in the G-MAC North standings in a tie with Hillsdale for third place. Findlay leads that division at 15-5, followed by Ashland at 12-8. Evan Larson is currently third in the G-MAC with a .393 batting average going 33-for-84 at the plate. Caden Duryea is also having a standout season batting .356 (42-118) with nine doubles, three triples, eight home runs, and 31 RBIs. Lucas McKinney holds the second-lowest ERA in the league at 2.98 in 45.1 innings with 38 strikeouts.

SCHEDULE
Tuesday, April 14 vs. Northwood - 4:30 PM (Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex - Caledonia, Mich.) - Live Video (FloCollege) - Live Stats
 

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