For a team that rolled to the conference championship in last weekend’s GLIAC Tournament, the Grand Valley State University baseball team’s trek toward a return to the NCAA Division II World Series found a roadblock in Rockhurst University.

The Lakers (43-16, 27-9 GLIAC) dropped their opener to the Hawks (35-18, 20-11 GLVC) on Thursday in Ypsilanti, Mich., 9-4. They rallied to earn a shot at redemption in the semifinals, but again hit a roadblock — this one more serious — as its season ended with a 10-5 loss.

“You don’t want to lose the first game like that, but we were pretty resilient coming back and winning two games,” said senior pitcher Kyle Schepel, who took the loss in the opener. “We showed a lot of character coming back to win a couple of games. They’re a good team, but we just did not perform our best in both games.”

Despite a pitching staff that led the team to a pair of tournament wins that set up the rematch, the Lakers hurlers couldn’t get it done against Rockhurst. Senior Kyle Schepel lasted just two innings in game one, allowing eight runs in his second and final inning.

The offense wasn’t much better for GVSU and was held in check, as the Lakers left six men on base during the game.

“I, honestly, thought our whole team really believed we were the best team in that regional — we just didn’t play well,” said senior outfielder Steve Anderson, who went 2-for-7 with a pair of RBI in the two games against Rockhurst. “We just didn’t play our best game, sometimes that happens, that’s just baseball.”

After dropping the opener, the Lakers rebounded strongly, eliminating Lewis University (33-22, 21-15 GLVC) 9-5 on Friday and Northern Kentucky University (36-22, 25-11 GLVC) 5-0 in the early game on Saturday.

With the Lakers facing elimination, junior Anthony Campanella threw a gem against Northern Kentucky, going the distance in the three-hit shutout.

But again, the rematch against Rockhurst proved to be similar to the first game. The Hawks were the one putting up big scoring numbers, getting eight men across the plate — including four in the seventh inning when GVSU trailed by just two — to push the game out of reach

Senior pitcher Cory Baker lasted just four innings, allowing four runs (three earned) while walking three.

In both contests, the Rockhurst starters each threw over 130 pitches, while containing the high-octane Lakers, who scored just nine runs in the games.

The loss marks the end to a distinguished career for head coach Steve Lyon. The Lakers’ headman will retire with back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Midwest Regionals, as well as winning eight of the last nine GLIAC championships.

This will also mark the end of the road for the GVSU seniors, a group that has seen its fair share of success in the past four years. Despite their departure, the team returns with a young nucleus and Anderson has confidence in his teammates going forward.

“Those guys are going to have to step up, their going to have to take on a bigger load next year, but they know they can, they’re great players,” he said. “I’m excited to see what those guys can do going forward. It’ll be fun to see.

What’s lost in the shuffle of the season ending is the fact that the seniors, guys who have been a part of the program to anywhere from one year to five years, will depart. This is a group who has seen the apex with last year’s college world series and also saw one of their own, Cody Grice, drafted by the New York Yankees.

Losing aside, this is as tight-knit a group of seniors as you can have, and the team lost more than just Lyon as the season concluded on Saturday.

“I love them, they are leaving a legacy and it’s by far the greatest senior class in terms of success,” Lyon said. “It’s just unbelievable what they’ve accomplished. The size (of the class), thirteen, is going to be solely missed by the Grand Valley baseball program and Grand Valley in general because they are outstanding young man.”

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