Grand Valley's Grice and Saginaw Valley's Beauchaine Chosen As GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week" and "Pitcher of the Week", Respectively

Click here for printer-friendly (PDF) version of release

BAY CITY, Mich. - Grand Valley State University junior outfielder Cody Grice (DeWitt, Mich.) and Saginaw Valley State University sophomore pitcher Carson Beauchaine (Fraser, Mich.) have been chosen as the GLIAC Baseball  "Player of the Week" and  "Pitcher of the Week", Respectively.

GLIAC Baseball Player of the Week:

Cody Grice
Grand Valley State
6-0, Junior, OF
DeWitt, Mich.

Grand Valley State University junior outfielder Cody Grice hit .545 (6-11) in a four-game sweep of Wayne State with three runs scored, one home run, 11 RBI and 10 total bases. Grice had a .909 slugging percentage and a .529 on-base percentage as he helped the Lakers clinch the 2011 GLIAC Championship. On Sunday he was 2-for-3 with one run and a season-high five RBI including a three-run homer.

Baseball Player Weekly Honor Roll:  Tyler Gray - AU; Jason Reitenbach - UF; Adam Connell - HC; Matt Toth - LE; Ryan Palmer - NU; Austin Grate - OD; Eric Burt - SV; Jordan Chiero - TU; Caleb Dalman - WS.

2011 "Players of the Week":  (3/18) R. Rua - LE; (3/21) M. Wiseman - WS; (3/28) M. Wiseman - WS; (4/4) S. Anderson - GV; (4/11) E. Melendez - AU; (4/18) S. Anderson - GV; (4/25) C. Grice - GV; (5/2) C. Grice - GV.

GLIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week:   

Carson Beauchaine
Saginaw Valley State
6-2, Sophomore, RHP
Fraser, Mich.

Carson Beauchaine, a Saginaw Valley State University sophomore, posted a complete game victory over Lake Erie in the opener of the teams’ weekend series at SVSU.  Beauchaine earned the 3-1 win by scattering four hits while striking-out three batters, allowing only one un-earned run to cross the plate. For the year Beauchaine owns a 5-3 record with 1.48 ERA in 48 1/3 innings of work.

Baseball Pitcher Weekly Honor Roll:  Matt Weber - UF; Ryan Garman - GV; Charlie Fisher - HC; Doug Fox - LE; Mark Heard - NU; Alex Borgan - OD; Tony Naso - TU; Josh Wedesky - WS.

2011 "Pitchers of the Week": (3/18) A. Meyer - AU; (3/21) M. Rustulka - WS; (3/28) J. Wedesky - WS; (4/4) R. Garman - GV; (4/11) A. Hilt - AU; (4/18) E. Hummel - SV; (4/25) A. Hilt - AU; (5/2) C. Beauchaine - SV.

 Ashland Eagles

The Eagles went 2-4 last week. They were swept in a doubleheader at Lake Erie on Thursday before splitting each doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday at Findlay. The Eagles scored the first five runs in the game on their way to a 7-5 win over the Oilers in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader. The win snapped a five-game losing skid for the Eagles. Prior to that losing streak, the Eagles had won 13 of their last 15 games. Ashland entered last week’s play ranked fifth in the NCAA Midwest region. Tyler Gray led the Eagles in hitting last week, batting .409 with seven runs, two doubles and four RBI. Leadoff hitter Matt McAllester hit .375 with seven runs and two doubles. Ashland got home runs last week from Ryan Avery, Evan Melendez and Mitch Klein. Avery’s three-run home run came in the second game of a doubleheader against Lake Erie that tied the game at 4-4. Melendez’s two-run homer came in game one of that doubleheader and tied the game at 2-2. The Eagles host Hillsdale for a four-game set next weekend, the final weekend of play in the GLIAC regular season.

Findlay Oilers

The University of Findlay baseball team split a twin bill against Tiffin University on Friday. The Oilers lost the first game 4-0 as the Dragons limited Findlay to only three hits. Findlay came out on the winning end of a 6-4 game in the second contest as Jason Reitenbach finished 4-for-4 with three runs-batted-in and one run scored. UF split on the opening day of a weekend series with Ashland. The Oilers won the first game 3-2 as Tommy Roush drove in Dustin Zielaskiewicz, who singled to lead off the bottom of the seventh, in the final at bat. The Oilers lost the second game 7-5 as they ended the game scoring one in the seventh while leaving two on base. Findlay completed the weekend series with another split against Ashland on Sunday. The Eagles defeated the Oilers 12-1 in the first game as Troy Balduf took the loss after allowing three runs on two hits in one inning of work. It took nine innings in the second game for the Oilers to pull out a 6-5 win. The Oilers, who own a 14-28-1 record overall with a 11-20 GLIAC mark, will close out their regular season May 7-8 at Northwood University.

Grand Valley State Lakers

#2 Grand Valley State improved to 39-3 this season with a 28-1 mark in GLIAC play after a four-game sweep of Wayne State in Detroit…The wins gave the Lakers the 2011 GLIAC Championship, marking the eighth time in the last nine years that GVSU has won the crown…Junior outfielder Cody Grice (DeWitt, Mich.) hit .545 on the weekend with one home run, 11 RBI and 10 total bases…Junior outfielder Steve Anderson (Northville, Mich.) hit for the cycle in the two games on Sunday, going 2-for-4 with a double, triple and two RBI in game one before going 2-for-3 with a grand slam and five RBI in game two…His grand slam was his second of the season and the fifth that the team has hit this season…Anderson had at least two RBI in each game against the Warriors over the weekend…The Lakers are leading the nation in winning percentage (.929) and have gone 33-1 in their last 34 games…The team is currently on a 19-game winning streak, the second longest in school history behind a 21-game streak in 2006…GVSU hosts Northwood for a doubleheader at home on Wednesday and will wrap up the regular season with a four-game homestand against Ohio Dominican this weekend.

Hillsdale Chargers

The Hillsdale College baseball team wrapped up its home schedule for 2011 this weekend, losing three out of four to conference newcomer Ohio Dominican… The Chargers’ lone win came Saturday, a 3-1 victory, where junior pitcher Charlie Fisher earned his first victory of the season…The team honored its eight graduating seniors on Sunday, and one of those seniors, Adam Connell, responded with a 6-for-8 day with 7 RBI over the course of the two games…This weekend, the Chargers are on the road for just the second time on a weekend all season, wrapping up the regular season with a four-game series at Ashland University…Freshman Nolan Nunez picked up his first collegiate hit vs. the Panthers Sunday…Connell is the only player on the team to start all 42 games this season, and he leads the team in five statistical categories.

Lake Erie Storm

The Storm reached the 20th win mark for the first time in school history Sunday with its 8-6 12-inning win at Saginaw Valley.  Overall, Lake Erie posted a 3-3 record for the week, including a doubleheader sweep at home Wednesday over Ashland… Matt Toth batted .400 for the week with a home run, leading off the game two win over Ashland, drove in five runs and was a perfect 6-of-6 on stolen bases… Ryan Rua had a team-high nine hits on the week, including three doubles, and his solo home run in the 5th inning of game one against Ashland proved to be the game winner… He now has 60 hits on the season, tying his own school record. Brandon James, who is just one hit behind Rua this season with 59, had a walk-off two-run homer Wednesday in game two and Zach Mosbarger hit the go-ahead home run in the 12th inning Sunday at Saginaw. It was his second game-winning home run of the season… Cody Blood had a career-high four hits and four RBI, with a homer, in the win at SV… Adam Beach tossed a complete game in a 3-1 loss at SV, allowing just two earned runs. He struck out seven in the game, moving into 2nd place on the school’s career list… Lake Erie opens the final week of the regular season Wednesday at ODU and finishes the week with a four game series against Wayne State at Classic Park.  

Northwood Timberwolves

Northwood went 2-2 last week at Tiffin – the Dragons won the first two games 3-2 and 5-1 before the Timberwolves won the final two contests 11-5 and 17-11 … Northwood is now 15-20 overall, 10-15 in the GLIAC … NU scored four runs in the first 21 innings of the weekend before plating 27 runs in the final 10 innings … Ryan Palmer (Saginaw, Mich./Nouvel) had a big week for the Timberwolves, batting .636 with two home runs and nine RBI’s … in the final game of the weekend, Palmer went 4-4 with two home runs and seven RBI’s … Mark Heard (Novi, Mich.) took a no-decision in game one of the series despite allowing just two runs in eight innings of work … NU will travel to GVSU before hosting Findlay for a weekend series to finish the regular season.

Ohio Dominican Panthers

ODU went on the road to take three of four from Hillsdale over the weekend…In Sunday’s doubleheader sweep (18-8, 6-5), the Panthers had innings of seven runs and five runs in the opener and tallied all six of their game two runs in the second inning…Seven Panthers had multi-hit efforts on the afternoon and six had multi-RBI games as well, and the 18 runs in the opener were the most since the team also plated 18 on May 8, 2008 when the Panthers defeated Urbana 18-4 in an NAIA Region IX Tournament contest…In the 18-run outburst, the Panthers finished with 15 hits – their most since registering 16 in the 11-3 win over then-No. 1 Georgia College - and walked nine times, their most drawing 10 walks against Tiffin in the 9-3 win on March 26…ODU outscored Hillsdale 33-19 on the week and batted .322 as a squad, led by Austin Grate, who batted .500 (6-for-12) with three doubles, six runs scored and six RBI…Nick DiNello drove in five and batted .455 (5-for-11), while Evan Shaw batted .429 (6-for-14) and went 5-for-5 stealing bases. Shaw leads the GLIAC with 19 steals. The Panthers stole nine bases on the weekend…ODU made just four errors and had a .969 fielding percentage and now ranks third in the GLIAC in fielding.

Saginaw Valley State Cardinals

The Saginaw Valley State University baseball team went 3-1 over the weekend in a home series with Lake Erie College.  The Cardinals opened the weekend with a 3-1 and 7-2 sweep on Saturday.  On Sunday, the Storm took the first game by a score of 8-6 in 12 innings before SVSU came back with a 9-8 walk-off victory in the nightcap.  Carson Beauchaine and Mike Saunders picked-up the victories on the mound on day one, while Justin Drzewicki got the win in relief in Sunday’s second contest.  Eric Burt hit .417 for the series, including the game-winner in Sunday’s victory.  The Cardinals are back in action this Wednesday at Wayne State before hosting Tiffin for its final GLIAC series.

  Tiffin Dragons

Tiffin improved to 13-31 overall and 10-20 in the league thanks to splitting a double header at Findlay Friday (April 29) and taking two of four against Northwood (April 30-May 1)…Jordan Chiero was the hero offensively, going a blistering 12-for-21 for the week with seven extra base hits and six RBI’s, none bigger than his walkoff base hit in the bottom of the 10th of Tiffin’s 3-2 win over Northwood Saturday…the Timberwolves looked as if they would get the victory in that extra-inning affair, but Michael Dushane came up with a two-RBI single in the bottom of the seventh…also in the game, senior Donnie Smith, taking the bump for the last time at Heminger Field, threw all 10 innings, surrendering only nine hits but two runs in 128 pitches to even his record at 4-4…Chris Pistorio was equally as impressive in the second game, allowing only one bottom of the seventh run in a complete game to improve to 4-3 in a 5-1 Tiffin victory Saturday.

Wayne State Warriors

Despite being swept at home in a four-game series for the first time since 2003, Wayne State remains in second place in the GLIAC with six games left in the regular season.  Senior shortstop Caleb Dalman paced the Warrior offense, as he went 7-for-9 with four walks in the series against third-ranked Grand Valley State.  Four of WSU’s 28 hits on the weekend were for extra bases, including three from Dalman (two doubles and a home run).  Redshirt freshman outfielder Chris Gebara and senior catcher Michael Wiseman had five hits apiece in the series.  Wayne State’s home finale is Wednesday against Saginaw Valley State, while the Warriors will end the regular season this weekend at Lake Erie.