Click here for printer-friendly (PDF) version of release
BAY CITY, Mich. - Grand Valley State University freshman shortstop Kevin Zak (Novi, Mich.) and Lake Erie College freshman pitcher Russ Hogue (Belle Center, Ohio/Indian Lake) have been chosen as the GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week" and "Pitcher of the Week", respectively.
GLIAC Baseball Player of the Week:
Kevin Zak
Grand Valley State
6-1, R-Freshman SS
Novi, Mich.
Redshirt freshman Kevin Zak had a stellar weekend at the plate,
hitting .714 (10-for-14), scoring six runs, driving in seven,
hitting two doubles and one home run with a stolen base. Zak hit
.625 (5-for-8) with runners in scoring position and recorded a
1.071 slugging percentage. He had three three-hit games during the
series against Wayne State, including a 3-for-3 game with two runs,
three RBI, a double, and a home run.
Baseball Player Weekly
Honor Roll: Zach Thompson - AU, Reid Rothenbuhler -
UF, Nolan Nunez - HC, Matt Toth - LE, Austin Rinard - NU, Kyle
Tisdale - OD, Cam Wiechmann - SV, Jordan Chiero - TU, 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; (4/23) Brad Guenther - WS; (4/30) Kevin Zak -
GV.
GLIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week:
Russ Hogue
Lake Erie
6-3, Freshman RHP
Belle Center, Ohio/Indian Lake
Freshman Russ Hogue tossed the best
performance of his young career with a complete-game shutout
against Ashland University Wednesday. Hogue scattered eight hits,
striking out one batter, while walking just one batter for the
game. He picked up his first college complete game and win. Hogue
needed just 94 pitches to retire the Eagles and was in command the
entire way in the 9-0 victory.
Baseball Pitcher Weekly Honor Roll: Zach Botjer - AU, Ethan James - UF, Ryan Garman - GV, Michael Keve - HC, Luke Bivens - NU, Nick Venditti - OD, Mike Saunders - SV, Jordan Liette - TU, Billy Hurley - 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; (4/23) Greg Spiess - WS; (4/30) Russ Hogue - LE.
Ashland Eagles
The Eagles were 3-3 last week,
splitting all three doubleheaders. AU won the first game on all
three days. The Eagles split with Lake Erie on Wednesday before
splitting a four-game set with Findlay on Friday and Sunday. Junior
right-hander Zach Botjer (Deshler, Ohio) was 2-0 in two starts last
week with a 1.38 ERA. He worked 13 innings, struck out nine and
allowed just eight hits. Senior outfielder Zach Thompson
(Marshalltown, Iowa) led the Eagles in hitting, batting .529
(9-for-17) on the week with a .619 on-base percentage. He scored
six runs for the week. Sophomore outfielder Wade Kaido (Zanesville,
Ohio) batted .450 (9-for-20) and hit his first career home run with
a team-high five RBI. Senior outfielder Ethan Houck (Fort Wayne,
Ind.) also hit his first career home run on Senior Day on Sunday.
The Eagles are fifth in the GLIAC and travel to Hillsdale for a
four-game set to finish the regular season.
Findlay
Oilers
The University of Findlay baseball team is 16-29 overall on the year with a 9-23 mark in conference play. This week, the Oilers went 2-4 with their wins coming against Ashland. Incredibly, sophomore Derek Draper picked up both wins in back-to-back days with 1 and 1/3 innings pitched in relief on Friday, then went the distance picking up his second win on Sunday. Findlay will conclude their season at home in a four game series this weekend against Northwood.
Grand Valley State Lakers
#8 Grand Valley State split a pair of doubleheaders with Wayne
State in the final home games of the season and head coach Steve
Lyon’s final series at home…GVSU dropped the opening
game 7-6, won the next two 7-2 and 4-2, then had a comeback fall
short in the conclusion, 11-8…Redshirt freshman Kevin Zak
(Novi, Mich.) was blistering at the plate, hitting .714 (10-for-14)
in the series with six runs, two doubles, one home run and seven
RBI for a 1.071 slugging percentage…Freshman Mike
Nadratowski (Canton, Mich./Plymouth) hit .583 (7-for-12) with seven
runs and three RBI on the weekend, raising his season batting
average to a team-leading .406…Senior RHP Ryan Garman (Cedar
Rapids, Iowa/Johnson County C.C.) had a complete game four-hitter
on Saturday, striking out five with no walks to move to 8-2 on the
season, tying him for the GLIAC lead in victories…The Lakers
will wrap up the regular season with a six game roadtrip this week,
playing twice at Northwood on Wednesday (May 2) and playing in a
pair of doubleheaders at Ohio Dominican (May 5-6).
Hillsdale Chargers
The Hillsdale College baseball team
lost its last three games of the weekend at Ohio Dominican, despite
giving up just 10 total runs in those three games…The
Chargers had just seven hits as a team in Sunday’s two games,
4-2 and 2-1 losses…The team’s earned run average has
dropped by a half a run per game since April 21…The
team’s hottest hitter of late has been sophomore infielder
Nolan Nunez, who had a career-high four hits vs. ODU
Sunday…In 13 games played since April 14, Nunez is batting
.432 and has raised his season batting average from .097 to
.258…Senior Mike Blanchard’s 19 stolen bases now rank
him sixth on Hillsdale’s single-season top 10 list in that
category…Blanchard is also on pace to record the highest
batting average the Chargers have seen in a single season since
Brandon Hubbard hit .382 in 2007…Hillsdale will play its
first Division I opponent in three years Tuesday, playing a single
nine-inning game at Eastern Michigan University Tuesday…This
weekend, the Chargers will close out their 2012 regular season by
hosting Ashland University in a four-game series.
Lake Erie Storm
The Storm continued its solid play,
going 3-3 on the week set a new school-record with 24
victories. Lake Erie split a doubleheader at Ashland
Wednesday and a four-game set with Saginaw Valley State over the
weekend… Against the Eagles, Lake Erie freshman Russ Hogue
tossed the best performance of his young career with a
complete-game shutout… Senior outfielder Matt Toth excelled
in that doubleheader going 6-for-7… Toth hit a blistering,
.706 clip this week (12-for-17)… Saturday Lake Erie
got a 3-2 extra inning win over SVSU… Junior Doug Fox worked
four innings of relief allowing one hit to get the win…
Senior Josh Crout had the game-winning single in the ninth in a
pitch-hitting role… Sunday, Lake Erie split with SVSU coming
one strike away from the sweep… Seniors Jae Leeworthy and
Brayan Cacique and sophomore Garrett Emling homered on the
afternoon… The second-place Storm host Ohio Dominican for
Senior Day Wednesday and then travel to Wayne State this weekend
for four games.
Northwood Timberwolves
Northwood went 0-6 last week,
dropping a pair to Saginaw Valley State before losing four over the
weekend to Tiffin … the Timberwolves are now 18-24 overall,
8-22 in the GLIAC … Austin Rinard (Homer, Mich./Kellogg CC)
hit .333 with a home run and a team-best four RBI’s for the
week … freshman Luke Bivens (Battle Creek, Mich./Lakeview)
continued his strong first collegiate campaign despite going 0-1
for the week … he allowed one earned run in his second
complete game of the season … Bivens currently leads the
team with a 2.70 ERA, which ranks him in the top 10 in the GLIAC
… Northwood will finish its season with games against Alma,
Grand Valley State and Findlay this week.
Ohio Dominican Panthers
ODU stayed alive for a berth in the
GLIAC tournament by taking three of four games from visiting
Hillsdale over the weekend…Runs were hard to come by in the
series, with the two teams combining for just 19 in the four-game
set…The Panthers’ pitching staff has allowed four runs
or fewer in each of the past nine games, going for a combined 1.41
ERA in that stretch and holding the opposition to a .236 batting
average…Junior Nick Venditti and freshman Austin Bueter
combined to strike out 22 Charger hitters on Saturday, with each
notching a career-high 11 punchouts in their starts…Freshman
Kyle Tisdale finished with six hits in 12 at bats to lead the
offense, registering a trio of multi-hit games on the
weekend…Sophomore Bryan Rudolph launched his team-best third
home run of the season on Sunday to help ODU sweep that day’s
games.
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
The Saginaw Valley State University
baseball team went 4-2 in conference play last week with a two-game
sweep over Northwood at Dow Diamond followed up a four-game weekend
series split with Lake Erie. The Cardinals are now 22-20 overall on
the season and in fourth place at 18-12 in the conference. The
Cardinal pitching staff has been the key to success for SVSU as
Mike Saunders has the best overall ERA in the conference at 1.41
and is fourth in strikeouts with 59. Teammate Carson Beauchaine is
fourth in the GLIAC at 2.09. As a team, SVSU has the second best
earned run average (3.76) in GLIAC play so far this season. The
SVSU offense is led by Brandon Schwanz who is sixth in the GLIAC
batting .377 on the year from the dish, including a clutch two-out
hit against Lake Erie in game two on Sunday, which plated the
game-winning run. Andy Orr is second on the team in hitting at .339
with 16 RBI’s, including a home run in game two against the
Storm on Sunday as SVSU mounted a comeback. Cam Wiechmann has been
hot as of late from the plate and is batting .325 in 29 games going
27-for-83 with 15 RBIs’. Saginaw Valley will be back in
action on Wednesday when they host Wayne State University for a
doubleheader starting at 2:00 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 collected his 200th career hit vs.
Northwood, the fourth Dragon to hit the mark, second this season
… Dragons have won 11 of last 12 games … Chris
Pistorio has throw 14 consecutive scoreless innings.
Wayne State Warriors
Wayne State split a four-game series last weekend at nationally-ranked Grand Valley State, winning the series opener, 7-6, and the finale, 11-8. The Warriors are in third place with six games remaining against the fourth-place (SVSU) and second-place (Lake Erie) teams in the conference. Kyle Vesey went 4-for-12 in the GVSU series and led Wayne State with six RBI and six runs scored. Three of his hits were for extra bases including his first home run of the year. Kenny Davis had a team-high five hits, and Kyle Zimmerman hit his first collegiate homer. On the mound, Josh Wedesky and Alex Pierse each picked up a victory, and Billy Hurley earned his eighth save of the season on Saturday.