Grand Valley State used an epic comeback to steal game one of the NCAA Midwest Super Regional in Detroit on Wednesday afternoon (May 11), shocking #10 Wayne State with a 5-4 victory. The Lakers trailed 4-1 entering their final at-bat, but scored four times in the seventh inning, with senior Chelsea Horvath's RBI single bringing in the eventual winning run.
 
GVSU leads its GLIAC rival in the best-of-three series, 1-0. The teams will meet again on Thursday afternoon (May 12) at 12:00 p.m. If Wayne State wins that game, the teams will play a winner-take-all third game immediately following tomorrow's opening contest, tentatively scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
 
The victory pushes GVSU's record to 42-11 on the season, while Wayne State drops to 50-9 overall. WSU is the third seed in the Midwest Region, while the Lakers are the region's fourth seed.
 
Heading into the seventh inning and its final at-bat, Grand Valley State had one run on nine hits against 2016 GLIAC Player of the Year (and the GLIAC Pitcher of the Year in both 2014 and 2015) Lyndsay Butler. Despite the nine hits (WSU had just seven), the Lakers still trailed 4-1. 
 
GVSU then put together four runs on five hits, which featured RBI singles from senior McKenze Supernaw, junior Ellie Balbach, and the game-winner from Horvath, not to mention a run-scoring groundball from freshman Shannon Flaherty, who raced around third to score the eventual game-winning run.
 
It was a tremendous pitching matchup to start off the best-of-three series, with Grand Valley State going with freshman Allison Lipovsky, the 2016 GLIAC Freshman of the Year, and Wayne State countering with Butler, who was recently named the Midwest Region Player of the Year by the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association.
 
Junior Jenna Lenza ripped a two-out single up the middle off of Butler in the first inning, but WSU got out of the inning with a groundout. Not only is Butler the Warriors' starting pitcher, she's also the team's leadoff batter. In the bottom of the first, she doubled off the wall in left field, moved to third on a base hit, and eventually scored on a Lipovsky wild pitch for a 1-0 WSU lead.
 
The lead grew to 2-0 when Hannah McClounie led off the second inning with a single, moving to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Later in the inning, Butler came up with runners on second and third base with two outs and the Lakers chose to intentionally walk Butler. Immediately following the intentional walk, a two-out bloop single to left center field from Allie Buchanan brought in McClounie for the second run of the game.
 
GVSU threatened in the third inning when sophomore Kaylie Rhynard and Lenza notched back-to-back singles with two outs. Supernaw then hit a chopper up the middle that was snared by the Warrior shortstop, who stepped on second base for the third out of the inning.
 
Lipovsky posted a 1-2-3 third inning but allowed a leadoff single in the fourth frame. She was replaced in the circle by sophomore Courtney Reinhold after the leadoff hit. Reinhold retired the first two batters she faced, but on a pitch to Butler with two outs and Kylee Barrett on third base, she stumbled during her pitching motion and was called for an illegal pitch. That essentially works out to a balk, bringing Barrett in from third base to make the score 3-0.
 
The Lakers responded with another great scoring chance in the fifth, as junior Janae Langs led off with a sharp single to right field and sophomore Teagan Shomin followed with a double down the left field line to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Butler, however, retired GVSU's 2-3-4 hitters on two groundouts and a strikeout to escape the jam and preserve the 3-0 advantage.
 
After a 1-2-3 inning from Reinhold (on just seven pitches) in the bottom of the fifth, Balbach doubled to left center to start the sixth inning. Pinch runner Ali Vander Meer ran for Balbach and moved to third base on a groundout. With two outs, Horvath legged out an infield single to score Vander Meer and cut the deficit to 3-1.
 
The Warriors matched GVSU's run in the sixth inning by tallying one of their own, starting with a leadoff walk to McClounie. She scored on an RBI single from Ali Lince to make the score 4-1. 
 
From there, Grand Valley State started its incredible comeback. Butler (29-5, 0.70 ERA entering the game) retired the first batter in the seventh inning, but the next five Lakers reached base. Rhynard singled to right center and Lenza collected her third hit on a single to left field. Both players moved up on a wild pitch from Butler.
 
Supernaw hit a hard liner that deflected off of Butler and stayed in the infield, but it was enough for Rhynard to race home and cut the score to 4-2. On the very next pitch, Balbach hit a sharp single to left field to bring in Lenza to make it a 4-3 game.
 
Pinch runner Tanner Kiessel was in for Supernaw and at second base with Flaherty at the plate. She hit a groundball that was misplayed by the WSU third baseman and kicked up into the air. Kiessel alertly rounded third and raced home to score the game-tying run and make the score, 4-4.
 
Two batters later, the Lakers had runners on first and second base with two outs when Horvath lined a single back up the middle and into centerfield. Flaherty came around to score from second base and put GVSU in front, 5-4.
 
Butler, who was named the conference's top player but easily could have also been the league's top pitcher for the third year in a row, had allowed four runs in an entire game just four times all season. The Lakers totaled four runs on five hits in just the seventh inning alone off of the junior righthander.
 
After Lipovsky and Reinhold each tossed three innings, Laker head coach Dana Callihan went to her senior, the newfound 'closer' Sara Andrasik. 10 pitches later, Andrasik had set down the Warriors in order on a popup and a pair of groundball outs to close the game and give GVSU a stunning game one victory.
 
The Lakers recorded 14 hits, by far the most allowed by Butler in a game this season; her previous high was 10 hits allowed against Ashland in late-April. Balbach and Lenza each recorded three hits and went 3-for-4. Horvath was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI and Rhynard went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Shomin and Balbach had a pair of doubles, which were two of the three extra-base hits in the game.
 
Lipovsky's final line read three runs (two earned) on five hits in three innings. Reinhold (10-4) earned the victory by allowing one run on two hits in three innings of relief. Andrasik notched her sixth save of the season with her perfect 10-pitch inning.
 
Butler dropped to 29-6 on the year, allowing five runs (three earned) on 14 hits. She did not walk a batter and struck out just two Lakers on 109 pitches. Butler is the GLIAC leader with 225 strikeouts entering the Super Regional.
 
GVSU is now 41-28 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and evens its record at 3-3 in Super Regional action. The Lakers have participated in three Midwest Super Regional series (which began in 2009) and won the 2013 Super Regional at #1 Indianapolis. Grand Valley State needs to win once on Thursday to clinch its third-ever trip to the College World Series (2002, 2013).