Offensive outburst fuels GVSU to series win

GVL / Emily Frye
Mitchell Kozlowski

GVL / Emily Frye

GVL / Emily Frye Mitchell Kozlowski

Andy Smith

The bats came to life over the weekend as Grand Valley State took three of four games from Lake Erie in Allendale.

On Saturday, the Lakers showed the Storm some thunder and lightning as the offense boomed out 21 runs and 26 hits and dominated the first day of the four-game set. GVSU’s pitchers were also very effective in keeping the Storm offense at bay.

The Storm got its revenge in a big way in game three on Sunday by pummeling GVSU, 19-6. The Lakers salvaged the series in game four, however, 6-4.

“Anytime you win two games by that significant of a margin it is a good day,” GVSU coach Jamie Detillion said about Saturday. “(Sunday) we rebounded well from game one and competed well. Any time you can win three out of four in a series is good.”

On Saturday the GVSU offense was led by third baseman Mitchell Kozlowski, who was 7-of-8 on the day, which included a 4-for-4 game. It was the first time in his career that he had four hits in a game. He also had two RBIs and scored a run.

“I just tried to let the ball get deep, try to see it as long as I could, square it up, hit it back up the middle and get on base,” Kozlowski said. “Being in the nine hole in the order, I am just trying to get on base for the top of the order and make things happen.”

Kevin Zak was also a big part of the offensive outburst on Saturday. He was 5-for-8 with three RBIs.

The pitching was impressive, as well.

Pat Kelly improved his record to 4-1 on the year in game one. He gave up one run and five hits on the day, but saw his scoreless streak snapped at 30.2 innings as the Storm had back-to-back doubles in the seventh inning.

Aaron Jensen pitched great for the Lakers in game two. He gave up three runs on five hits in 5.2 innings, struck out seven batters and improved to 4-2.

The second day of baseball was a roller coaster ride for GVSU.

One bad inning plagued the Lakers in game three. The Storm had a 13-run second inning on 10 hits, largely due to four Laker errors. The Lakers were able to battle back and make it a game, but the inning was too much to overcome.

Game four was a battle.

The Storm scored first to take an early lead, but that all changed in the fifth inning when GVSU freshman catcher Connor Glick took advantage of a mistake made by the Storm pitcher and launched a bomb over the scoreboard in left center field to tie the game at two.

The offense didn’t look back from there, as the Lakers went on to score four runs in the sixth inning to give them all the support they needed.

“I wasn’t thinking about the home run,” Glick said. “I was struggling a little bit the past two weeks and, before the game when we were taking batting practice, coach helped me sure up my swing and see the ball better. I was able to get in a 2-0 count, I knew a good pitch was coming and I put a good swing on the ball.”

He finished with three RBIs on the day, while Kozlowski kept his solid weekend going at the plate with a 4-for-5 day. Josh Smith was also big in game four, as he got the rally started in both the fifth and sixth innings. He finished 3-for-5 on the day with two RBIs.

Senior reliever Kevin Hallberg picked up the win for the Lakers, moving his record to 3-1 on the season. Matt Williams collected his fifth save of the year.

The Lakers (19-12, 11-7 GLIAC) are back in action Wednesday at Northwood.