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Bay City, Mich. -- Grand Valley State earned an automatic bid into the 2009 NCAA DII Baseball Tournament with its GLIAC Tournament title. The Lakers defeated Northwood in the finals of the tournament by a score of 7-4 to claim their seventh straight GLIAC Baseball crown and sixth straight GLIAC Tournament title.
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-- GLIAC Baseball Weekly Notes --
Ashland - The Eagles will host the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament this week, May 14-17, in Chillicothe, OH. The games will be played at VA Memorial Stadium. This is AU's third consecutive trip to the NCAA playoffs and 10th time in the last 11 seasons the Eagles have extended their season. Ashland has advanced to the NCAA Championships two of the last three years. A year ago, AU played at the Championships in Sauget, IL, and went 1-2...last year, AU defeated Wayne State in the regional championship game, which was played in Crestwood, IL. AU's all-time record in the NCAA postseason is 29-28...junior Ben Minard is 10-0 this season and for his career, is 26-8. Minard needs three more victories to move into AU's top five in career victories. Andrew Niederst (1998-2001) sits in fifth place with 29 wins...senior outfielder Tyson Rowland is tied for first at AU in career runs scored (213) and career stolen bases (82)... junior third baseman Jacob Petkac is the 2009 GLIAC "player of the year". This marks the fourth consecutive year an AU player has won that award. Since joining the conference, an AU player has won that award seven times. Junior Ajay Meyer is this year's GLIAC "Pitcher of the Year". He is the first Ashland hurler to claim that award since Ryan Hartzell in 2002.
Findlay - The Universtiy of Findlay Oilers were idle last week and have concluded their season.
Grand Valley State - Grand Valley State earned an automatic bid into the 2009 NCAA DII Baseball Tournament with its GLIAC Tournament title. The Lakers are one of two teams (Central Missouri) in all of DII baseball to appear in each of the last eight NCAA DII Tournaments. GVSU has advanced to five of the last six Midwest Regional title games...Grand Valley State captured its seventh straight GLIAC Baseball crown and sixth straight GLIAC Tournament title with its 7-4 over Northwood in the 2009 championship game...Grand Valley State has now won 17 consecutive GLIAC Tournament games. The Lakers' last loss in GLIAC Tournament action was its second game in the 2003 tournament...2B Kyle Gendron hit .571 (8-for-14) with four home runs, a double, nine RBIs, five runs scored and 21 total bases in three games. Gendron's slugging pct. was 1.500...RF Scott Cain tallied a .462 batting average with six RBIs and two runs scored, while DH Ben Knuth hit .417 with four RBIs and three runs scored...GVSU hit nine home runs and collected 44 hits in three games...Freshman pitcher Kyle Schepel picked up the win in the GLIAC title game vs. Northwood. Schepel yielded two runs and six hits in 7.0 innings of work with eight strikeouts...Senior relief pitcher David Bowman picked up his fourth save in the Lakers' last eight games.
Hillsdale - The Hillsdale College Chargers were idle last week and have concluded their season.
Northwood - The Northwood baseball team reached the finals of the GLIAC Tournament over the weekend before falling to Grand Valley State...it was the first time in school history the Timberwolves had reached the conference tournament...after dropping their opening game to GVSU, NU defeated #4 Ashland 4-2 and then beat Wayne State 12-3 to reach the finals...pitching was the key to the Timberwolves reaching the finals - NU did not allow an earned run in the wins over AU and WSU...sophomore pitcher Eric Kinley (Saginaw,Mich./Heritage) earned the win over Ashland, tossing a nine-inning complete game while allowing zero earned runs...Kinley is currently second in the GLIAC in ERA (2.58).. in the victory over Wayne State, catcher Ryan Palmer (Saginaw, Mich./Nouvel) hit the first grand slam of the season for the Timberwolves...shortstop Zack Lecker (Saginaw, Mich./MLS) had a big tournament at the plate for Northwood, batting .563 in the four games...his batting average rose from .314 to .360 over the weekend ...centerfielder Matt Czajkowski (Plymouth, Mich./Divine Child) also had a strong tournament for Northwood, batting .529 with two triples and a home run ... he went 5-6 from the plate against Wayne State...Northwood will lose only one senior from the team for the 2010 season.
Saginaw Valley State - This week, the Cardinals wrapped up the season with a 2-3 record, dropping three games to Northwood University, two of which were played at Dow Diamond, the third and final GLIAC contest played at SVSU. Junior Josh Peterson (Midland, Mich.) went 2-3 in Game 1, while freshman Ryan Longstreth (Beaverton, Mich.) went 6-2/3 innings, striking out four and giving up zero walks in the loss. In Game 2, SVSU was only able to get five hits on the board, and were lead by juniors Chase Coulter (Clio, Mich.) and Charlie Thomas (Northville, Mich.) who each went 1-2. Against non-conference opponent, Rochester College, the Cardinals were 2-0 in their last games in the 2009 campaign. Freshman Jason Potts (Hartland, Mich.) went 1-2 with a run scored, while junior Josh Kozuch (Bay City, Mich.) hit 1-for-2 and had one RBI. Freshman Colin Coulter (Clio, Mich.) was on the mound for the victory and gave up just one walk, while fanning three. In Game 2, the offense for both teams picked up when junior Kevin Dore (Bay City, Mich.) went 2-for-4, but senior Kevin Schwedler (Midland, Mich.) got the biggest hit in the bottom of the seventh that scored the final run of the game. The Cardinals ended the season with a 19-28-1 record overall and were 13-19-1 in the GLIAC.
Tiffin - The Tiffin University Dragons were idle last week and have concluded their season.
Wayne State - Wayne State, which qualified for the GLIAC Tournament for the fifth time in six years, won its opener Thursday against top-seeded Ashland but lost twice on Friday to end the season...WSU scored three times in the top of the ninth to come from behind in a 5-4 win over the Eagles, taking advantage of an AU error which led to two unearned runs before Charlie Dunneback's RBI single...the Warriors had a six-run lead slip away in the eighth inning Friday as GVSU scored seven times to defeat WSU, 12-11...the season ended later that day as Wayne State fell to Northwood, 12-3...Andrew Ciennik led the team with a .545 batting average in the tournament...Michael Wiseman hit .455 with a team-best five RBI...Ryan LaPensee's three hits and three runs increased his career totals to 133 and 192, which rank third and fourth all-time at WSU, respectively...Adam Kaminski went 0-for-3 with a walk against the Timberwolves, snapping his career-long 19-game hitting streak...the Warriors hit 36 home runs this season, the most since the 1998 team hit a school-record 45 homers.