The weather hasn’t perfect over the last week, but the Grand Valley State University softball team has been.

The Lakers went 4-0 over the weekend after opening conference play 2-0 Wednesday night and are aptly demonstrating that there is more than one way to go about winning softball games.

Senior ace Hannah Santora, listed at 5’3’”, is the shortest player on GVSU’s softball team and has pitched in 371.1 innings during her career as a Laker. Freshman pitcher Sara Andrasik, listed at 6’ even, is the tallest student-athlete on the roster and has only 53.2 innings to her name. In many ways, they couldn’t be more different, but both Santora (who is 11-0 and the first Laker to start off a season 10-0 since Jen Mackson in 2003) and Andrasik boast sub two ERA’s through 22 games this year. While they both sport differing styles, both brought home wins on Friday and Saturday.

“I think Sara Andrasik’s probably a little bit more confident now as she’s going – that’s nice,” said GVSU head coach Doug Woods. “Hannah’s a battler. I’d like her to cut the walks down just a little bit (she only had one Friday) – I told her I’m gray enough already, I don’t need more gray hairs – but she battles, even if she does give somebody a walk. She did a nice job.”

Senior centerfielder and leadoff hitter Nellie Kosola is an athlete whose specialties include getting on base and patrolling the outfield with a natural ease. Senior designated player Katie Martin has shifted positions throughout her career, but has never been anything less than a menace for opposing pitchers with a bat in her hands. With two homers in the first three innings of Saturday’s first game against Lake Erie, Martin tied the Laker and GLIAC career record with 46 home runs and Martin’s 10-total bases Friday made her GVSU’s all-time leader with 447 bases. Offensively, Kosola and Martin bring distinct styles to the table, but they are GVSU’s one and two single-season hit record holders (with 87 and 85 hits, respectively) and are each batting over .400 in 2013. They both also helped to officially welcome Walsh College into the GLIAC with redeeming 4-0 and 6-1 victories.

“We lost to them last year so it was good to beat them twice,” Kosola said. “They’re new to the conference so it was nice to show them what the conference is about. Two big wins and then we have two more big games tomorrow.”

On Saturday, the Lakers picked up right where they left off and continued to showcase the best of both mundane and spectacular varieties of baseball. Dominate 23-0 and 12-1 victories against Lake Erie put an end to the week and sent the Lakers home a little early to celebrate Easter.

From 2004 to 2010, GVSU did not score 16 runs in a single game. After a 16-run inning Wednesday, GVSU scored 15 during the first inning against Lake Erie after three homers and two grand slams between seniors Kayleigh Bertram and Martin. Highlights were accumulated as rampantly by the Lakers as the score was built and included plays like Kosola’s laser-guided throw on a string back to home just in time for Holt to swiftly make the tag at the plate after tracking down a stray fly one out in to the top of the third in game one.

Martin’s string of three consecutive doubles in game one, each of which appeared to find a homing beacon behind a championship banner hung along the fence in centerfield and scored runs, were equally worthy of recognition. As were Brittany Taylor’s towering homerun shot in game two on Friday and Santora’s two shutouts (her 2nd and 3rd of the season giving her 11 in her career).

After another set of back-to-back victories, ‘just win’ might also be a suitable rally cry for the 20-2 Lakers. Whether it’s getting runners on-base, advancing them with sacrifice bunts, hitting with timing, fielding with precision or pitching with tact, the Lakers have seemingly mastered the art of small ball and are capable of synthesizing power when it counts.

“Briauna (Taylor, GVSU’s starting shortstop who had seven assists in game two against Walsh) has great range, gets to a lot of balls,” Woods said. “That helps you out so much, helps your pitcher out. Then (with girls like Kosola, the Taylor twins, senior Kayleigh Bertram, junior Tanya Calkins, freshman Chelsea Horvath, McKenze Supernaw) we try to get them moving to second ‘cause we’ve got some girls (like seniors Holt, Martin, Emily Jones, Maggie Kopas, junior Miranda Cleary) that can drive them in after that. That’s sort of fast-pitch softball, how it’s played and they understand that.”

Short, tall, experienced and youthful, the Lakers are a collective contradiction. Amongst the 20 girls on the team, their styles are unique. They’re a 5-tool team that plays intelligently and plays together. It takes all 20 girls to complete the winning puzzle.

“They all get along well and as you said, that’s important,” Woods said. “They’re pulling for each other – when one’s out, one’s in, they’re pulling for that person. That’s what you like to see. You’ve got to have it that way, you definitely do.”
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