At the beginning of the season, the Grand Valley State University baseball team was picked to finish at the top of the GLIAC standings.

To this point, they’ve lived up to those expectations, just not the way they envisioned.

GVSU (16-11, 10-4 GLIAC) managed to win two of three games over the weekend against Ohio Dominican University, but fell 9-2 on Sunday in the final game of the series, snapping a three-game winning streak.

Ohio Dominican exploded for seven runs in the seventh inning to break the game wide open and GVSU wasn’t able to mount any type of rally on their own.

Senior Anthony Campanella (3-3) was handed the loss after working 4.1 innings of relief.

“At the beginning of the season, we weren’t playing very well, and we still aren’t playing well,” said junior Giancarlo Brugnoni, who chipped in with two RBI’s over the weekend. “But we’re putting it together. We have people coming out and playing well. We’re going to be fine.”

Two people that played well over the weekend for GVSU was senior pitcher Kyle Teague and freshman pitcher Patrick Kelly.

In the first game on Saturday, Teague (4-0) set the tone for the Lakers as he pitched seven strong innings, and allowed one earned run and struck out seven in a 4-1 GVSU win.

Offense was scarce to start, until Ohio Dominican scored in the bottom half of the fourth, giving them a 1-0 advantage. However, GVSU would respond in the top of the fifth, with RBI’s by Brugnoni and Abel to give them a 2-1 advantage. A wild pitch and a two-out single by sophomore Kevin Zak gave the Lakers their third and fourth runs of the contest.

After a strong pitching outing from the veteran senior, GVSU got another strong start, but this time, from a freshman. Kelly (3-2) went the whole way, seven innings, and gave up no earned runs while allowing seven hits.

“I was throwing strikes and they were putting the ball in play and the defense was just making every play that was going to them,” Kelly said. “The nerves at this point of the season have gone away and I’m just kind of going out there and throwing all the time. Overall, I’m feeling pretty confident and just having fun playing the game.”

GVSU got contributions from five different players on the offensive end. Zak led the Lakers with two RBIs in the game, as GVSU scored in five of the seven innings to take a 6-3 win.

History was made on Thursday, as senior Brad Zambron became the NCAA Division II career saves leader, as he tallied the 33rd save of his career in a 9-8 victory over Tiffin University.

“He works hard every single day,” Brugnoni said. “There’s no one else better in the nation that deserves that record better than he does. He’s a great guy to have on the field and an all-around great teammate. It’s awesome that he broke the record.”

On Wednesday, GVSU will travel to face their rival Saginaw Valley State University in a doubleheader.

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