DETROIT, Mich. -- The Wayne State University baseball team (23-13 overall, 12-6 GLIAC) will host rival Grand Valley State (18-16 overall, 10-6 GLIAC) in a four-game series Friday through Sunday at Harwell Field.  The Warriors have a one-game lead on the Lakers for second place in the league while both trail Saginaw Valley State at the top.

Earlier this season, Wayne State and Grand Valley State split their head-to-head doubleheader on March 30 in Allendale.  The Warriors won game one 5-3 before dropping the second round 6-1.  The Lakers are coming to Detroit for the first time since 2022 and WSU has gone 3-1 against GVSU in each of the last three four-game sets played at Harwell.

While Grand Valley State ranks third out of six in the conference in batting average (.282), the Lakers boast the GLIAC's top ERA at 4.48.  Individually, GVSU's Nick Rutkowski and Mike Morawski rank first and tied-for-third respectively in that category with clips of 2.29 and 3.26.  Rutkowski and Morawski are two of eight Grand Valley State pitchers that have accounted for at least 15 innings, five of which have an era below 4.00.

Back to the Lakers' offensive attack, Kyle Nott has been their most consistent producer with a .355 batting average, good for 10th in the league.  Nott is one of three GVSU regulars hitting above that .300 mark along with Jonas Gulbrandsen (.309) and Brendan Guciardo (.301).  Gulbrandsen leads his squad in at-bats (136), hits (42), home runs (8), RBI (32), total bases (75) and slugging percentage (.551).  As for Nott, he's also on top of OPS (1.007), runs scored (29), walks (24) and stolen bases (12-of-15).

Grand Valley State owns a record of 12-12 in games not played at home including a 3-7 mark in true-road contests.  Wayne State is 5-3 inside the friendly confines so far this spring where eight of their final 12 games of the regular season will be played.