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BAY CITY, Mich. - Wayne State University junior catcher/outfielder Brad Guenther (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) and junior pitcher Greg Spiess (Saline, Mich./Jackson CC) have been chosen as the GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week" and "Pitcher of the Week", respectively.
GLIAC Baseball Player of the Week:
Brad Guenther
Wayne State
5-10, Junior C/OF
Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline
Brad Guenther scored a team-high six runs and hit .313 (5-16) at
the plate with a double, as WSU won four of six games last
week. Guenther drove in two runs in Sunday’s 5-1
victory over Ashland, and scored three times in a win Wednesday
against Hillsdale. He had three walks and two sacrifices last week,
while posting an on-base percentage of .450. Guenther was also a
perfect 2-2 in stolen bases for the week.
Baseball Player Weekly
Honor Roll: Adam Urbana - AU, Tommy Roush - UF,
Brian Robinson - GV, Mike Blanchard - HC, Evan Shaw - OD, Matt Hunt
- SV.
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; (4/23) Brad Guenther - WS.
GLIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week:
Greg Spiess
Wayne State
6-4, Junior LHP
Saline, Mich./Jackson CC
Greg Spiess tossed a two-hit
shutout as WSU defeated Ashland, 4-0, on Saturday. Spiess threw
just 81 pitchers, issued no walks and struck out four as Wayne
State recorded its first-ever shutout of Ashland. The only
base runners he permitted were on singles in the third and fifth
innings. Spiess currently has a 3-1 record with a 2.91 earned run
average. He is only allowing opponents to hit .250 to this point in
the season.
Baseball Pitcher Weekly Honor Roll: Zach Botjer - AU, Drew Hargrove - UF, Kyle Schepel - GV, Matthew Reck - HC, Brian Kilway - LE, Alberto Canales - OD, Mike Saunders - SV, Chris Pistorio - TU.
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; (4/23) Greg Spiess - WS.
Ashland Eagles
The Eagles lost five of six games
– all on the road – last week. AU dropped a
doubleheader at Tiffin on Wednesday before losing three of four at
Wayne State on the weekend. Freshman Adam Urbania (Mentor,
Ohio/Lake Catholic) was AU’s leading hitter last week, going
6-for-14 with three RBI, two runs scored and two stolen bases. He
was 3-for-4 with two RBI in a 7-2 win at Wayne State on Saturday.
Junior Zach Botjer (Deshler, Ohio) was AU’s starter in that
game and tossed a complete game to improve to 6-2 on the season. He
allowed just two runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Botjer is
second in the GLIAC with 64 strikeouts. Sophomore Wade Kaido
(Zanesville, Ohio) is tied for fifth in the GLIAC with 45 hits and
sophomore Tyler Gray is second in the circuit with eight home runs.
Three AU pitchers – Botjer, senior Aaron Hilt (Richmond,
Ohio/Edison) and junior Brad Thomas (Orrville, Ohio) – have
six wins apiece.
Findlay
Oilers
The University of Findlay baseball team went 1-5 this week with their only win coming against Ohio Dominican on Wednesday. Their overall record is 14-25 with GLIAC mark of 7-19. Despite the loss, sophomore Drew Hargrove went the distance against the Lakers on Sunday, allowing only one earned run on five hits while striking out five. They will take on Tiffin and Ashland this week before wrapping up their season at home against Northwood on May 5 to 6.
Grand Valley State Lakers
#11 Grand Valley State went 4-0 in its weekend trip to
Findlay…The Laker pitching staff posted three shutouts in
the four game set, the first time since 2007 that GVSU had three
shutouts in a span of four games or less…For the weekend,
the GVSU pitchers worked 28 innings, allowed only 12 hits and one
earned run, striking out 26 and holding hitters to a .126 batting
average against…Senior Kyle Schepel (Grand Rapids,
Mich./Christian) threw a complete game one-hitter on Saturday (Apr.
21), striking out nine…Senior Cory Baker (Byron Center,
Mich./North Dakota) posted 10 strikeouts on Sunday (Apr. 22) in six
innings of work…Junior Brad Zambron (Waterford,
Mich./Brother Rice) collected saves in three of the four games
against Findlay, giving him 12 on the year and a new GVSU
single-season record, besting his own total of 10 from last
season…GVSU has now won 15 straight games overall and 16
straight games against Findlay…GVSU will welcome Wayne State
to Allendale, Mich. on Saturday (Apr. 28) and Sunday (Apr. 29) for
a pair of doubleheaders.
Hillsdale Chargers
The Hillsdale College baseball team
went 2-4 last week, finishing up a six-game homestand while
starting a five-game road trip that will cover three different
cities…The big offensive numbers that happened the previous
weekend versus Northwood continued in the team’s two games
against Wayne State, as the Chargers and Warriors combined for 42
runs in their Wednesday doubleheader…However, Tiffin shut
Hillsdale down this past weekend, allowing a grand total of nine
runs in four games…The Chargers were scoreless for 18
consecutive innings during the weekend…Senior Mike Blanchard
continues to lead the team in batting with a .377 average, and has
at least one hit in 12 of his last 14 games…Blanchard is
also third in the GLIAC with 18 stolen bases…Hillsdale is
4-4 in its eight home games this season…Hillsdale plays at
Ohio Dominican this weekend, then will wrap up the regular season
May 5-6 at home vs. Ashland.
Lake Erie Storm
The Storm continued its solid play,
going 3-2 on the week to match last year’s school-record win
total of 21. After dropping a 12-5 nonconference game on
Wednesday to 24th-ranked Mercyhurst, Lake Erie bounced back to take
3-of-4 at Northwood over the weekend… Against the
Timberwolves, the Storm pitching staff was dominant, posting an ERA
of 0.67 in 27 innings and allowing just two earned runs (four
total) in the four games. Brian Kilway (5-1) and Adam Beach
(5-2) pitched complete game victories in games one and three,
respectively, and freshman Cory Fox (2-1) threw five shutout
innings in his first collegiate start in the finale, a 10-0 Storm
rout. The only loss on the weekend was in Saturday’s
game two, a 1-0 setback in which Logan Nordquist went the
distance… Offensively, Matt Toth had six hits and four
RBI on the week, including a 3-for-4 effort in Sunday’s first
game. Freshman Sean Mathews had two hits against Mercyhurst on
Wednesday and then went a career-best 3-for-4 with two runs and two
RBI in the final game at Northwood… the second-place Storm
travels to Ashland Wednesday for a showdown with the Eagles and
then hosts Saginaw Valley State this weekend for four games.
Northwood Timberwolves
Northwood went 2-3 last week
winning a non-conference game at home against Davenport (Mich.)
7-6. The Timberwolves hosted Lake Erie in a weekend series dropping
three of four games. Northwood is now 18-18 overall, 8-16 in the
GLIAC. Lake Erie improves to 21-17 overall, 17-7 in the GLIAC.
Northwood will now host Saginaw Valley State at Dow Diamond Tuesday
(April 24). First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Admission is $5.00 for the doubleheader. As a special to all
youth players in the area, any boys or girls wearing their team
jersey get it for just $1.00. The game will also feature the
chance for kids to run the bases between games, plus a t-shirt toss
and other great promotions.
Ohio Dominican Panthers
Despite having a team ERA of 1.85
and batting .293 as a team, compared to .260 for the opponents, ODU
went 2-4 in its six games last week…The Panthers had sixth
inning leads in two of their losses and a seventh inning lead in
another…ODU’s pitching staff did not allow an extra
base hit last week…The Panthers are second in the conference
in batting average (.306), with senior Evan Shaw leading the
conference in steals (19)…Junior Nick Venditti, after
tossing a four-hit shutout on Sunday, ranks fourth in innings
pitched (57.1)…Shaw led the team in hitting (.368), runs
(4), RBI (3), steals (3) and tied for team lead with four walks in
the six games last week…Senior Tyler Zaidel returned from
injury to bat .364 in four games last week…Freshman Alberto
Canales went 11.2 innings over two appearances last week and did
not allow an earned run, striking out eight…Classmates
Austin Bueter (6 IP, 0 ER) and Cole Carpenter (6 IP, ER) also had
good outings.
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
The Saginaw Valley State University
baseball team took 3-of-4 last weekend in conference play over Ohio
Dominican. The Cardinals are now 18-18 overall on the season and
14-10 in the conference. The Cardinal pitching staff’s
successes have continued Mike Saunders has the second best overall
ERA in the conference at 1.49 and is fourth in strikeouts with 50,
while teammate Carson Beauchaine is fourth in the GLIAC at 1.85. As
a team, SVSU has the second best earned run average (3.53) in GLIAC
play so far this season. The SVSU offense is led by Brandon Schwanz
who is 10th in the GLIAC batting .375 on the year from the dish.
Kyle O’Boyle is also having success at the plate to the tune
of a .340 batting average with 20 runs and a team-high 23
RBI’s. First baseman Mike VanAlst has driven home 18
Cardinals this season and is hitting .302 on the season, while Andy
Orr is batting .348. Matt Hunt is batting .324 on the season.
Saginaw Valley will be back in action on Tuesday when they face
Northwood University for a doubleheader at Dow Diamond in Midland
starting at 4:00 pm.
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 850 …
Val Helldobler is first Dragon to record 400 in a career as he
stands with 413 … The 2-1 win over Lake Erie on April 7 was
the 430th career win for head coach Lonny Allen … The
Dragons held Hillsdale scoreless for 19 2/3 consecutive innings
… Val Helldobler needs just six hits to become the fourth
Dragon to have 200 hits in a career.
Wayne State Warriors
Wayne State
went 4-2 last week and moved into third place in the conference
after splitting Wednesday at Hillsdale and taking three of four
against Ashland over the weekend. Greg Spiess and Alex Pierse
tossed two-hit shutouts in the second and fourth games,
respectively, versus the Eagles. Brad Guenther, who ranks
second in the conference in runs scored, crossed home plate six
times last week and went 5-for-16 with three walks. Eric
Cunningham had a team-best eight hits and Kasey Koster, who homered
twice at Hillsdale, drove in eight runs in the six games.
Wayne State will travel to Grand Valley State for a four-game
series this weekend.