Click here for printer-friendly (PDF) version of release
BAY CITY, Mich. - Grand Valley State University sophomore infielder Giancarlo Brugnoni (Grosse Pointe, Mich./De La Salle) and Ashland University junior pitcher Zach Botjer (Deshler, Ohio/Sinclair CC) have been chosen as the GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week" and "Pitcher of the Week", respectively.
GLIAC Baseball Player of the Week:
Giancarlo Brugnoni
Grand Valley State
6-3, Sophomore INF
Grosse Pointe, Mich./De La Salle
Giancarlo Brugnoni tied an NCAA Division II record with four home
runs in four straight plate appearances against Tiffin on Saturday.
For the week, Brugnoni hit .522 with nine runs, 12 hits, five home
runs, 10 RBI, a 1.304 slugging percentage and the first triple of
his career. Brugnoni became the first Laker ever with four or more
multi-HR games in his career and the first with back-to-back
multi-HR games.
Baseball Player Weekly
Honor Roll: Giancarlo Saia - AU; Tommy Roush - UF;
Chris Stephens - HC; Brayan Cacique - LE; Austin Rinard - NU; Ryan
Rovnak - OD; Jason Potts - SV; Kyle Vesey - WS.
2012 "Players of the Week": (3/14) Steve
Anderson - GV, (3/20) Christian Prince - OD, (3/26) Chet LaFave -
SV, (4/2) Evan Shaw - OD, (4/9) Wade Kaido - AU, (4/16) Giancarlo
Brugnoni - GV.
GLIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week:
Zach Botjer
Ashland
6-0, Junior RHP
Deshler, Ohio/Sinclair CC
Zach Botjer won all three
appearances he made for the Eagles last week. Botjer tossed 14
innings and allowed just three earned runs. On Monday, he allowed
just two runs on five hits in five innings striking out five.
Against Saginaw Valley State, Botjer threw two perfect innings of
relief and earned the win in Saturday’s opener. The following
day, he got the start in Game 1 and struck out an AU season-high 12
batters in a complete game.
Baseball Pitcher Weekly Honor Roll: Preston Zachrich - UF; Kyle Schepel - GV; Dan Rhodes - HC; Mark Heard - NU; Nick Venditti - OD; Mike Saunders - SV; Greg Spiess - WS.
2012 "Pitchers of the Week": (3/14) Cory Baker - GV, (3/20) Jordan Snider - NU, (3/26) Adam Beach - LE, (4/2) Kyle Schepel - GV, (4/9) Aaron Hilt - AU, (4/16) Zach Botjer - AU.
Ashland Eagles
The Eagles were 5-1 last week to
move into a tie for second place in the GLIAC, just one game off
the pace set by Grand Valley State. AU split a doubleheader with
Ohio Dominican, winning 17-2 and losing 10-5 on Easter Monday. The
Eagles swept a four-game series against Saginaw Valley State at
Donges Field over the weekend. The Eagles got outstanding pitching
performances over the weekend, not allowing an earned run until the
seventh inning of Game 3. Brad Thomas (Orrville, Ohio) allowed just
an unearned run in seven innings in Game 1 on Saturday and Zach
Botjer (Deshler, Ohio) tossed two innings of perfect relief in a
2-1, nine-inning win for the Eagles. Aaron Hilt (Richmond,
Ohio/Edison) tossed a complete game shutout in a 12-0 win over the
Cardinals in Saturday’s nightcap. Botjer tossed a
seven-inning complete game in a 3-1 win in Sunday’s opener.
He struck out an AU season-high 12 batters and allowed just one run
on five hits. He is second in the GLIAC with 59 strikeouts and is
carrying a 2.17 ERA for the season. Giancarlo Saia (Mentor,
Ohio/Lake Catholic) batted .381 last week and had a team-high seven
RBI. He had a walk-off single in the eighth inning in
Sunday’s nightcap. He also powered his first career home run
in Sunday’s opener.
Findlay
Oilers
The University of Findlay baseball
team is 13-20 overall with a record of 6-14 in conference
play. The week started promising with a two game sweep of
Urbana on Wednesday, but took a wrong turn as the Oilers traveled
to Lake Erie and lost 3 out of four to the Storm. Junior
Tommy Roush is batting .433 on the season and is on pace to break
the Findlay RBIs record of 46 (35), hits record of 68 (42), and
possibly doubles of 27 (13). The Oilers are scheduled to take
on Ohio Dominican and Grand Valley State this week.
Grand Valley State Lakers
#20 Grand Valley State had a perfect 8-0 week, sweeping
Hillsdale and Northwood twice each, then taking down Tiffin in four
straight games…Sophomore Giancarlo Brugnoni (Grosse Pointe,
Mich./De La Salle) had a career day against Tiffin, tying an NCAA
Division II record with four straight home runs in four straight
plate appearances…In game one against the Dragons, Brugnoni
went 3-for-3 with three runs, five RBI, two home runs and the first
triple of his career…In game two, Brugnoni went 2-for-3 with
two runs, three RBI and two more home runs…His streak
spanned from his last two plate appearances in game one to his
first two plate appearances in game two…He added another
home run against the Dragons on Sunday to give him five for the
weekend…Senior RHP Kyle Schepel (Grand Rapids,
Mich./Christian) took a no-hitter in to the seventh inning against
Hillsdale, finishing the game with 6.1 innings of work and a
career-high 10 strikeouts with one hit allowed in the
shutout…Schepel then worked 5.1 innings with four hits
allowed and five strikeouts against Tiffin with no runs allowed,
giving him 11.1 shutout innings for the week…The Lakers will
travel to Findlay for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend.
Hillsdale Chargers
The Hillsdale College baseball team
played a wild weekend series with Northwood University, where a
total of 85 runs were scored between the two teams in four
games…The team scored a season-high 12 runs in the fifth
inning of Saturday’s first game, and was able to withstand a
nine-run seventh inning by the Timberwolves to win the
game…Hillsdale scored 40 runs in four games over the
weekend, but it took the team 14 games to score a total of 41 runs
before the weekend series with Northwood started…Senior
Chris Stephens had 1 home run and 11 RBI entering the weekend, but
in the four games against the Timberwolves alone, he had 2 home
runs and 14 RBI, including a career-high seven runs batted in
during the opening game of the series…The Chargers’
previous season-high for runs in a game was nine, and they met or
exceeded that total three times over the weekend…Senior Mike
Blanchard has hits in 11 of his last 13 games and leads the team
with a .394 batting average…Blanchard is also tied for first
in the conference with 16 stolen bases…Hillsdale continues
its homestand this week by hosting Wayne State on Wednesday.
Lake Erie Storm
Lake Erie went 5-1 in six games
last week, extending their winning streak to six games before
falling in the series finale against Findlay Sunday. The Storm
swept doubleheaders from ODU (5-1 and 6-4) and Findlay (8-2 and
15-4) to start the week before splitting on Sunday.
Offensively, senior 2B Brayan Cacique went 10-for-15 (.667)
in the six games with 12 RBI, 10 runs and four extra base hits. He
homered in both games Saturday and drove in the winning run of
Sunday’s 13-12 victory with two outs in the seventh. Junior
3B Cody Blood also had a big week, batting .500 (8-for-16) with 10
RBI. Blood homered twice in Sunday’s first game. Classmate
and DH Pat Kilway homered once on Saturday and again on Sunday, the
first two round trippers of his career. The Storm offense averaged
10 runs per game for the week, including a season-high 15 against
Findlay Saturday. On the mound, sophomore Brian Kilway (4-1) won
his fourth straight decision with a complete-game victory over
Findlay (8-2). Junior Doug Fox recorded two saves on Wednesday
while Pat Sinko (1-0) and Heath Kelley (2-1) earned relief wins
during the week. LEC hosts Mercyhurst on Wednesday in a
nonconference game, before a weekend series at Northwood.
Northwood Timberwolves
Northwood went 2-4 last week,
losing a pair at Grand Valley State before splitting a four game
series against Hillsdale … Northwood is now 16-15 overall,
7-13 in the GLIAC … NU dropped two tough games that could
have turned it into a 4-2 week, losing a 2-0 lead in the final
inning at GVSU before committing seven errors that turned into 13
unearned runs in a 18-17 loss to Hillsdale … Northwood had
scored a total of 46 runs in their opening 16 GLIAC games entering
the weekend series against Hillsdale – the Timberwolves then
plated 45 runs in the four games against the Chargers alone
… Austin Rinard (Homer, Mich./Kellogg CC) had a pair of
grand slams in the doubleheader that went from Saturday to Sunday
due to darkness … in those two games, Rinard had three home
runs, five hits and 10 RBI’s … senior Ryan Palmer
(Saginaw, Mich./Nouvel) entered the weekend series against
Hillsdale batting .197 on the season, but went 9-13 against the
Chargers, good for a .692 batting average … he raised his
batting average 87 points to .284 with his performance this weekend
… Northwood now has 14 home games in the next 16 days,
starting with a home game Wednesday against Davenport before
a weekend series against Lake Erie.
Ohio Dominican Panthers
Head coach Paul Page earned his
900th career win as the Panthers split with Wayne State on Sunday.
Page, in his 25th season, has guided the Panthers to 10 40-win
seasons, 21 30-win seasons and six NAIA World Series
berths…Despite outhitting its opposition .335-.312 this
week, ODU was outscored 44-28. Seven starters hit at least .316 on
the week, including Austin Butler (5-for-9, 2 HR, 4 RBI), Ryan
Rovnak (.450, 9-for-20) and Christian Prince (.412, 8 R, .545
OBP)…John Bowron has hit in five straight games for the
Panthers…ODU is batting .309 as a team and has been tough on
left-handed pitching this year, hitting .361…Nick Venditti
was sharp in two outings, allowing just three hits in eight innings
over two appearances. He picked up the win in relief over Wayne
State on Sunday and struck out five to just one walk for the
week.
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
The Saginaw Valley State University
baseball team went 2-4 last week in conference play with a sweep at
Wayne State and then followed it up by going winless at Ashland
over the weekend. The Cardinals are now 15-17 overall on the season
and 11-9 in the conference. The Cardinal pitching staff’s
successes have continued Mike Saunders has the best ERA in the
conference at 1.49 and is fifth in strikeouts with 44, while
teammate Carson Beauchaine is seventh in the GLIAC at 2.25. As a
team, SVSU has the third best earned run average (3.79) in GLIAC
play so far this season. Closer Justin Drzewicki picked up the win
at Wayne State in game two by pitching the Cardinals out of a base
loaded, no out jam in the bottom of the seventh. The SVSU offense
is led by Brandon Schwanz who is 10th in the GLIAC batting .392 on
the year from the dish with 19 runs scored. Kyle O’Boyle is
also having success at the plate to the tune of a .363 batting
average with 19 runs and a team-high 22 RBI’s. First baseman
Mike VanAlst has driven home 18 Cardinals this season and is
hitting .305 on the season, while Andy Orr is batting .338. Saginaw
Valley will be back in action on Saturday when they host Ohio
Dominican for a weekend series.
Tiffin Dragons
The 5-0 win over Ohio Dominican
(March 24) was the 600th in school history … Pat Curtin had
his 200th career hit vs. Lake Erie (April 7) joining Phil Sabataka
(2000-03) and Ty Blake (2007-10) in that group … Pat Curtin
holds the school record for putouts in a career with 844 …
Val Helldobler needs two assists to become the first Dragon to
record 400 in a career … The 2-1 win over Lake Erie on April
7 was the 430th career win for head coach Lonny Allen.
Wayne State Warriors
Wayne State
snapped its four-game losing streak with a 7-4 win in the second
game of Sunday’s doubleheader at Ohio Dominican. At the
midway point of their conference schedule, the Warriors are in
fourth place. Kyle Vesey led WSU with a .455 batting average
(5-for-11) and four runs scored last week. He became the 18th
player in school history to score 100 runs in a career.
Andrew Ciennik, Brad Guenther and Alex Trojan had five hits apiece
last week as well. Greg Spiess picked up his second win of
the year Sunday at ODU, allowing just two runs on five hits over
six innings. Wayne State will travel to Hillsdale on
Wednesday before facing Ashland in a four-game series this weekend
in Detroit.