In poker, nobody wants to quit when they’re losing and nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead. In many ways, baseball works the same way.

Grand Valley State University baseball began its 2013 campaign losing six of its first 13 contests and on Mar. 17, boasted an uninspiring 6-7 record.

Two months later, GVSU is NCAA Division II World Series bound for the sixth time in 11 years (second berth in three years) after dropping only eight of their last 31 regular season games (.742) and winning seven of their last 10 GLIAC and NCAA Division II Midwest Regional tournament competitions.

On Thursday afternoon, GVSU opened play in Springfield, Mo. with a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over No. 4 seeded Saint Joseph’s of Indiana.

A pair of pocket three-run homers, one from sophomore Jesse Abel in the sixth and one from junior slugger Giancarlo Brugnoni (his 13th of the season, 32nd of his career, tying him with GVSU career record holder Dustin Vugteveen) in the seventh was enough to make GLVC Pitcher of the Year Jordan Peterson, who allowed 10 hits and five earned runs in seven innings, fold for only the second time this season.

In the quarterfinals on Friday, No. 5 seeded Lewis University fell 9-3 to GVSU after junior Taylor Banks laid down a five RBI straight to couple with sophomore Mike Nadratowski’s three of a kind, 3-for-6, triple and three stolen base outing.

In what was perhaps the 2013 season’s royal flush, GVSU had saved a 25-hit (25-of-48, .521) game, the Lakers highest single game hit total of the season, 18-run outpour for Saturday’s match up against No. 6 seed Bellarmine.

Sophomore Kevin Zak set a new GVSU single game record with six hits and tied the single-game record for runs at five while senior starter Kyle Teague delved into the record book himself, striking out a Laker record 14-batters on the day, allowing only six hits, one run and no walks in nine innings of work – arguably the best performances in GVSU baseball history from the plate and mound, respectively.

“The pitching has been strong and Patrick Kelly (redshirt freshman) is another one of the guys that’s been pitching extremely well,” said GVSU senior closer Brad Zambron. “He kind of gets lost behind Camp and Teague, but those three guys give us a really good rotation. I think we match up really well with anyone we face because I don’t think there’s three good starters like we have on any other team and it is nice to know that we’re going to have those guys going deep into games. We’re just so deep and getting around tournament time, postseason time, I think that’s really important.”

As solid as Teague and the other starting pitchers have been – it takes a team to win games in such a complete manner.

“Kyle Teague was very dominating with 14 strikeouts – it’s actually one of the most dominating performances I’ve seen a pitcher have,” said GVSU head coach Jamie Detillion. “They had no chance against him. With his confidence level and when he has his good stuff going, he’s as good as anybody I’ve seen at the college level. That’s what they (our pitchers) do, keep runs off the board and at the end of the day, it’s about who scores more – that’s how the winner’s defined. (That said) there’s been a lot of things that don’t go on the stat line, too on some key plays. Some guys have made some great defensive plays that have kept the team in the game and help some pitchers avoid putting runs on the board for the opposing team.”

As fate would have it, Bellarmine defeated Lewis 13-1 in Saturday’s loser’s bracket elimination game to set up a rematch with the Lakers in Sunday’s championship. GVSU, like their softball counterparts on Saturday against the University of Indianapolis, would only need to win one of two games to advance to the World Series.

The Lakers came out flat in the championship round with a 7-4 lapse. In game two, the ante was raised and GVSU decided to call Bellarmine’s bluff.

It took a 3-for-3, three RBI performance complete with a two-out, two-RBI go-ahead single with the game tied at three in the bottom the eighth from sophomore dual sport centerfielder Jamie Potts, 108 pitches in eight innings (on only two days rest) from senior starter Anthony Campanella and a scoreless inning with a strikeout from Zambron to earn their ninth and 13th respective win and save of the season and clinch the deciding game, but a 6-3 full house final score did the trick.

Following the game, Potts, first baseman Brugnoni and pitcher Teague were named to the NCAA Division II Midwest Region All-Tournament team – Potts, who went 10-of-18 (.555) over the tournament, was the decided MVP.

“Kevin (Zak) had a great tournament, Potts had an even better tournament so it’s good to see those guys getting hot, ready to go for this weekend when we play in the world series,” Zambron said. “It means a lot, it’s a team effort. When those guys are playing well and hitting the ball, odds are we’re going to win. We’ve been pitching really well. (The 13th save of the season) It was even better because it won the game and it was cool to be out there for the last out. I think I was the one that was on the bottom of the dog pile, which kind of sucked, but it’s all good stuff. That’s why you work so hard, to do stuff like that in those situations. It’s something you start the beginning of the year off as one of your goals and it feels good to finally achieve it – just fortunate to be a part of it.”

Now 35-17 (.673) in 2013, the Lakers are 461-165-2 (.734) over the last 11 seasons with 11 consecutive NCAA Division II tournament appearances, six NCAA Division II Midwest regional titles and six matching World Series appearances in what has been a continuation of what is already quite arguably the most prolific and successful decade run in program history.

The stakes for the Lakers haven’t been greater all season, as they progress once again to a high roller game in Cary, N.C. The opportunity will officially begin Saturday May 25 at 5 p.m. as the cards are dealt and GVSU goes head-to head with the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks (39-8), a team the Lakers defeated 12-0 during a season opening spring break trip to Florida but has since won 10 consecutive games and 22 of their last 23 contests.

“I think our score against them is pretty deceptive,” Detillion said. “It was one of those days where we had everything going our way and they didn’t have much working for them. They’re a good team and you could tell by watching them even before games just how they manage themselves, how they carry themselves – they’re a good team, top-to-bottom. I do think we had a good game against them, but baseball’s a funny sport. Kind of like our tournament, you have the 18-1 game and then we turn around and get beat the next day. Anything can happen in baseball.”

As one of eight Division II programs in the national left playing, GVSU has something left to prove and no desire to walk away from the table now.

“Excited to start playing,” Zambron said. “Back in 2011 when we went, it was kind of like maybe we were more happy to be there, but now that I’ve already been there once I’m not just happy with being there – I actually want to win a couple of games. The last two times they’ve (GVSU) gone to world series – so 2011 and 2009 – they actually went 0-and-2 so it’d be nice to actually win a game here and that’s something I’m looking forward to doing. I’m not just happy about going and I think most of the guys on the team feel the same way.”

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