Holland Reporter

Grand Valley State University (GVSU) secured a 12-6 victory over Missouri S&T in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional tournament on Thursday. The game took place at the GVSU Baseball Field, where the Lakers improved their overall record to 42-12. They are set to face Northwood, who holds a 37-19 record, in the second round on Friday at the same venue with the first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.

Missouri S&T initially took the lead by scoring two unearned runs in the first inning. However, GVSU responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half. Evan Morrison led off with a single and Jonas Gulbrandson hit a two-out, two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2. The Miners then scored one run in the second inning and three more in the third, including a three-run homer, taking a 6-2 lead.

The Lakers narrowed this gap in the fourth inning when Brendan Guciardo walked and Caden Thelen singled. Caleb Estrada then hit a double that brought both runners home, making it 6-4. In an explosive fifth inning for GVSU, they scored six runs on five hits. Jovan Gill's single was followed by another two-run homer from Gulbrandsen that tied the game again. Guciardo doubled and Ayden VanEnkevort singled to center field before an error allowed another run to score. Estrada hit his own home run later in the inning to extend their lead to 10-6.

In addition to their strong performance earlier, GVSU added two more insurance runs in the seventh inning through Morrison's RBI single and Dykstra's sacrifice fly.

Jayden Dentler earned his twelfth win of the season despite allowing six runs early on; he recovered well by pitching five innings of one-hit baseball thereafter. Colby Phipps closed out Missouri S&T without any further scoring opportunities.

Key players included Gulbrandsen who went 2-for-4 with four RBIs from his pair of home runs while Estrada finished 3-for-3 with five RBIs including his own three-run homerun contribution.

"Notes... Gulbrandsen's 15 home runs is tied for third in a single-season with all-time leader Giancarlo Brugnoni," according to statistics provided after this match-up." In addition," Denter is tied for first on "the single-season wins list with twelve."