Coming off a series split against St. Joseph University last Tuesday, the Grand Valley State University softball team took three of four games this weekend, including a sweep of Urbana University on Sunday.

Offensive woes continued to plague the team in its game one loss to Walsh University on Saturday, but the hitting improved throughout the weekend, culminating in 9-0 and 5-1 wins over Urbana on Sunday.

“Yesterday we hit right at fielders, today balls found the ground,” said GVSU head coach Doug Woods. “Hitting is contagious, so hopefully we keep this up.”

The team smacked 25 hits in their games on Sunday, including home runs from Miranda Cleary, Kayleigh Bertram and Briauna Taylor.

“I would think that repetition helped and timely hits getting strung together allowed us to score runs,” said Cleary, the 2011 GLIAC Freshman of the Year.

The Lakers pitching consistency was paramount in the team’s success as well. Senior starting pitcher Andrea Nicholson, who started Saturday’s loss to Walsh, held a one-run lead until a fifth inning break down when she gave up five runs on five hits.

Sunday saw the Lakers out hitting their opponents 25-6 overall and improving their pitching markedly. Nicholson redeemed her previous performance by earning seven strikeouts and giving up three hits in four innings. She improved to 7-2 on the year with a 1.07 ERA.

“I came back and did better today. I did well yesterday until fourth inning Saturday. Defensive miscues had me lose focus,” Nicholson said, referring to three errors that led to five unearned runs.

One of the few things to slow down the Lakers were two delays for lightning that lasted an hour. Pitcher Hannah Santora played on both sides of the delay.

“It’s not like baseball, where pitchers can’t go through a delay,” Woods said. “I was a little concerned but Hannah finished the game strong.”

Long road trips like the one the team recently completed are important to have early in the season for two reasons, Cleary said.

“We usually try to go south early in the season to find good weather,” she said, “Road trips are also good early on because they help with team bonding”

The Lakers return to the field on Tuesday for a doubleheader against Rochester beginning at 3 p.m.

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