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BAY CITY, Mich. - Saginaw Valley State University junior catcher Chet LaFave (Charlotte, Mich./Olney Central College) and Lake Erie College junior pitcher Adam Beach (Vermilion, Ohio) have been chosen as the GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week" and "Pitcher of the Week", respectively.
GLIAC Baseball Player of the Week:
Chet LaFave
Saginaw Valley State
6-0, Junior Catcher
Charlotte, Mich./Olney Central College
Chet LaFave helped lead the Cardinals to a sweep of visiting Hillsdale this past weekend. LaFave went 4-8 (.500) at the plate with three doubles and four runs driven in. His two-RBI double in game 1 on Sunday sealed the victory for the Cardinals. LaFave?s three doubles were the Cardinals? only extra base hits of the weekend. He had an on-base percentage of .636 and a slugging percentage of .875 for the week.
Baseball Player Weekly Honor Roll: Giancarlo Saia - AU; Tommy Roush - UF; Stephen Claypool - GV; Mike Vanchieri - HC; Aaron Lindgren - LE; Pat Schlenke - NU; Anthony Raschilla - OD; Val Helldobler - TU; Brad Guenther - WS.
2012 "Players of the Week": (3/14) Steve Anderson - GV, (3/20) Christian Prince - OD, (3/26) Chet LaFave - SV.
GLIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week:
Adam Beach
Lake Erie
6-3, Junior RHP
Vermilion, Ohio
Adam Beach tossed his first career complete-game shutout in Lake Erie?s conference-opening 1-0 win at #10 Grand Valley on Saturday. It was his second straight win and second start in a row without allowing a run, extending his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 14. Beach held the Lakers to just five hits and two walks, while striking out five. On the season, Beach is 2-2 with just a 1.01 ERA in four starts.
Baseball Pitcher Weekly Honor Roll: Zach Botjer - AU; Darrell Thobe - UF; Ryan Garman - GV; Dan Rhodes - HC; Jordan Snider - NU; Alberto Canales - OD; Carson Beauchaine - SV; Eric Klepper - TU; Chris Waha - WS.
2012 "Pitchers of the Week": (3/14) Cory Baker - GV, (3/20) Jordan Snider - NU, (3/26) Adam Beach - LE.
Ashland Eagles
The Eagles were 2-3 last week, falling to Walsh in a single game on Wednesday before a weekend series split at Northwood. The Eagles dropped Saturday?s opener to the Timberwolves, 4-2, before picking up a 2-1 win in the nightcap. Junior Brad Thomas (Orrville, Ohio) allowed just one unearned run for the win and junior right-hander Zach Botjer (Deshler, Ohio/Sinclair CC) picked up the save. Freshman Kyle Vozar?s (Hinckley, Ohio/Medina Highland) sacrifice fly in the seventh inning of Saturday?s opener snapped a scoreless tie and the Eagles went on to the 1-0 win. Botjer tossed a complete game shutout, striking out three and allowing just three hits. Botjer tossed 8.2 scoreless innings on the week, striking out six and walking two. Freshman Giancarlo Saia (Mentor, Ohio/Lake Catholic) was AU?s leading hitter for the week, batting .333. It was Saia?s two-run double that helped the Eagles overcome a 1-0 deficit in the top of the seventh inning in Saturday?s second game. The Eagle pitchers carried a 3.09 ERA for the week. The Eagles host Tiffin for a doubleheader on Wednesday before traveling to Allendale, Mich. for a four-game set with Grand Valley State.
Findlay Oilers
The Oilers went 1-3 this week in a four-game weekend series against Wayne State. In that series, Findlay recorded a 15-8 win while losing the other three games by two runs or less and two games in the final inning. Junior first baseman Tommy Roush hit .636 in the series with three doubles and a .733 on base percent. He is now batting .442 on the season with 19 hits and eight doubles. Junior pitcher Darrell Thobe, who pitched in the 2-1 series finale loss on Sunday, faced 28 hitters allowing only four hits and two runs in 6-2/3 innings while striking out six.
Grand Valley State Lakers
#10 Grand Valley State went 1-3 against Lake Erie in the opening weekend of GLIAC play despite a better batting average and lower ERA over the four-game set?Senior Jared Cowan (Davison, Mich.) continued his hot hitting, going 5-for-12 (.417) with a .467 on-base percentage over the weekend and is leading the team with a .450 batting average this season?Junior Stephen Claypool (Carleton, Mich./Ball State) hit two home runs over the weekend, including a one-out, three-run long ball in the bottom of the seventh on Sunday (Mar. 25) to send the game in to extra innings?Senior Kyle Schepel (Grand Rapids, Mich./Christian) is still in search of the top spot on the career wins list at GVSU?Schepel threw six innings and struck out six on Saturday (Mar. 24) but took the loss in the 1-0 setback, the first time he has been tagged with a loss since March 10, 2010?Schepel had won 20 straight decisions over two calendar years?GVSU will host Ashland for a four-game set this weekend (Mar. 31-Apr. 1).
Hillsdale Chargers
The Hillsdale College baseball team is now on an eight-game losing streak, after dropping its last four games in Florida, and its first four games in conference play at Saginaw Valley State this weekend?Five of the team?s eight losses came by one run, and the final loss of the weekend was in extra innings?Senior Mike Blanchard leads the team in hitting with a .421 average and has hits in seven of his last eight games, six of those being multi-hit games?The Chargers are 2-3 when Blanchard hits in the No. 2 spot in the lineup?Charger pitchers allowed just a total of seven earned runs in the four losses to the Cardinals over the weekend, but Hillsdale committed 11 errors in those games, and left 29 runners on base?Junior Mike Vanchieri leads the team with a 10-game hitting streak currently?Hillsdale?s first 10 GLIAC games will all be played on the road, as the team faces a Wednesday doubleheader at Wayne State Wednesday before heading to Lake Erie College for a four-game weekend set March 31-April 1?The team won?t be at home until it faces nationally ranked Grand Valley State Tuesday, April 3.
Lake Erie Storm
The Storm went 4-2 on the week, starting with a split of two nonconference games at Charleston (W 10-2, L 5-4) and then opened conference play by taking three-of-four at #10 Grand Valley over the weekend. The Storm swept GV on Sunday with a pair of extra inning wins? Friday?s series opening win was LEC?s first over a DII ranked opponent, and the first for the Storm against GV. Lake Erie had been 0-12 all-time against DII ranked teams, including 0-5 this year, and was 0-6 all-time against the Lakers entering the weekend? Adam Beach was the star in the opener at GV, tossing a 5-hit shutout in a 1-0 win. Brian Kilway made two starts on the week, going 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. Doug Fox earned the win in relief of Sunday?s 4-2 win, but had his streak of six consecutive appearances without allowing a run snapped in the nightcap. Freshman Heath Kelley got the save in the 8-6 finale, the first of his career? Offensively, Aaron Lindgren hit .500 in five games, with two doubles a triple and his first collegiate home run Sunday at GV. The Storm hosts traditional nonconference rival Notre Dame College Wednesday for the home opener at Braggs Field and then entertains Hillsdale College this weekend for a four-game series.
Northwood Timberwolves
Northwood went 2-3 last week, falling 4-3 at Central Michigan Tuesday before splitting a four-game series against Ashland ? the Timberwolves are now 11-4 overall, 2-2 in the GLIAC ? NU?s pitching continued to be impressive, finishing the week with a 1.75 team ERA for the five games ? Northwood allowed 10 runs total (seven earned) in 36 innings ? in the weekend series against Ashland, Northwood allowed a total of six runs, giving up totals of 2,2,1 and 1 in the games ? in the five games played for the week, a total of just 24 runs were scored ? all six pitchers who threw for Northwood for the week had a 3.00 or better ERA ? Pat Schlenke (Novi, Mich.) led the way for the Northwood offense, batting .467 with five doubles ? Northwood will host Ohio Dominican for a weekend series Saturday and Sunday.
Ohio Dominican Panthers
The Panthers finished with a 3-2 mark in their first five home games, defeating Urbana 8-4 in a non-conference matchup on Wednesday before splitting a four-game series with Tiffin over the weekend?ODU hit .319 for the week and slugged .418?Twelve different players had at least one RBI, led by sophomore Bryan Rudolph, who had a home run and drove in four against Urbana?Tyler Watkins (4-for-6, 2 RBI), Anthony Raschilla (4-for-9, 2 2B, 3 RBI), Vince Bartolone (5-for-12, 3 R) and Evan Shaw (6-for-16, 4 SB) also had impressive weeks at the dish?A pair of freshmen earned wins on the mound for ODU as Alberto Canales defeated Urbana in his first collegiate start, allowing just three hits and one unearned run, while Cole Carpenter limited Tiffin to just two earned runs in 5.2 innings of work?Sophomore Nick Venditti also picked up a win after holding the Dragons to two runs in six innings, tossing just 69 pitches?After struggling defensively on Saturday, committing seven errors in the two games, ODU had just miscues in the field Sunday and turned five double plays on the week?The Panthers also swiped 7-of-8 bases?For the season, ODU is hitting .338 (27-of-80) against lefties.
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team swept four games from Hillsdale over the weekend to improve their record to 7-8 overall on the season and 4-0 in the GLIAC. Junior catcher Chet LaFave led the Cardinal hitters this weekend, going 4-8 (.500) at the plate with three doubles and four runs driven in. His two-RBI double in game 1 on Sunday was the go ahead run in the contest. His three doubles were the Cardinals? only extra base hits of the weekend. Junior pitcher Carson Beauchaine threw a complete game three hitter to open the series with Hillsdale in the Cardinals 5-0 victory. Beauchaine struck out four Chargers and allowed just one runner to advance to second base or further. As a team the Cardinals hit .271 over the weekend, while the pitching staff recorded a 1.55 ERA over the course of the weekend with one shutout and two complete games. Cardinal pitchers struck out 21 batters over the four game series. For the season the Cardinals are hitting .284 on the season, while the pitching staff has an ERA of 3.55 on the year.
Tiffin Dragons
The 5-0 win over Ohio Dominican (March 24) was the 600th in school history ? Ryan Locke has a team season-high batting streak of nine games.
Wayne State Warriors
Wayne State took three out of four games from Findlay to open GLIAC play, and in all three victories the Warriors came from behind. Games two and four were walkoff results, as Andrew Ciennik and Brad Guenther, respectively, had game-winning RBI singles in the bottom of the seventh inning. Ciennik went 8-for-15 with five RBI in the weekend series, while Guenther (6-for-12) had a .647 on-base percentage and scored a team-high six runs. Kyle Vesey (5-for-12) drove in a team-best six runs in the four games. Wayne State had its eight-game winning streak against Findlay snapped, but the Warriors are 18-5 vs. the Oilers since 2007. WSU will host Hillsdale on Wednesday before traveling to Tiffin this weekend.
