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Wayne State University Athletics

Gavin Nash - 2026 vs. Grand Valley State
Taylor Carrow
Gavin Nash stymied the Lakers in Game 1 with just one run allowed for his third victory.
1
Grand Valley State GVSU 25-5, 5-1 GLIAC
3
Winner Wayne State WSU 22-6, 6-4 GLIAC
Grand Valley State GVSU
25-5, 5-1 GLIAC
1
Final
3
Wayne State WSU
22-6, 6-4 GLIAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Grand Valley State GVSU 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 8 0
Wayne State WSU 0 0 0 3 0 0 X 3 7 0

W: Nash, Gavin (3-3) L: JJ Manion (3-1) S: Miller, Philip (1)

14
Winner Grand Valley State GVSU 26-5, 6-1 GLIAC
6
Wayne State WSU 22-7, 6-5 GLIAC
Winner
Grand Valley State GVSU
26-5, 6-1 GLIAC
14
Final
6
Wayne State WSU
22-7, 6-5 GLIAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Grand Valley State GVSU 1 1 0 0 3 4 1 0 4 14 12 0
Wayne State WSU 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 6 11 1

W: Owen Avery (5-0) L: Pulford-Thorpe, Keegan (3-1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Cooper Weidenthaler, Assistant Director for Media Relations

Baseball Secures Friday Split with Grand Valley State

The Warriors won the first game 3-1 but fell 14-6 in the nightcap at Harwell Field.

DETROIT -- The 22nd-ranked Wayne State University baseball team (22-7 overall, 6-5 GLIAC) duked it out with No. 6 Grand Valley State (26-5 overall, 6-1 GLIAC) for 16 innings in a doubleheader on Friday at Harwell Field.  The Warriors snapped the Lakers' nine-game win streak with a 3-1 triumph in the first game, but could not contain GVSU's offense in the second game as the Green and Gold dropped a 14-6 decision in the nightcap.  Wayne State and Grand Valley State will conclude its all-ranked series on Saturday afternoon beginning at noon.

GAME ONE
Just four runs were combined across seven innings as pitching reigned supreme in game one.  All three Warrior runs came on one swing of the bat, as Brayden Crowe (Brighton, Mich. / Hartland) turned around a two-strike, two-out pitch from Lakers' starter JJ Manion for a 3-run blast to center in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Crowe's fourth homer of 2026 came the game after his third, which happened on Thursday in the first contest of the series.  It broke a scoreless tie and scored both Alfredo Velazquez (Livonia, Mich. / Brother Rice [Michigan]) and Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. / [Barton College]), who had walked and was hit by pitch, respectively.

Those runs were to the benefit of starter Gavin Nash (Howell, Mich. / Hartland), who turned in another strong performance.  The redshirt sophomore nearly went the distance, but had to settle for 6.1 innings with eight hits allowed, one earned run, one walk, and five strikeouts against one of the top offenses in Division II.  Nash worked out a trouble in a few innings, most notably the fifth frame where he stranded two in scoring position after a pair of doubles.

WSU kept GVSU off the board in the opening frame when Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) threw out Kaden Howard trying to score from second base on a single.  The defensive plays continued in the seventh when Rhett Roeser (New Baltimore, Mich. / Warren De La Salle) made a charging play on a deflected ground ball to save a hit.

After a walk in relief by Rocco Cardinale (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North), Philip Miller (Flat Rock, Mich. / Woodhaven [Schoolcraft C.C. / Tusculum]) tallied his first save of 2026 by punching out Howard looking to secure the victory.

GAME TWO
The Lakers returned to the field in game two and put up two runs (one each) in the first and second frames to grab an early 2-0 lead.  However, that advantage would not last long as WSU knotted the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the second.  Roeser and Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.) started with a pair of singles, before a Velazquez sacrifice bunt moved them both into scoring position.  Then, Garza followed with a two-run single to left to plate both Warriors.

The scoreboard would stay the same at 2-2 for the next two innings, before Grand Valley State flexed its muscle by plating eight consecutive runs across the fifth (three runs), sixth (four), and seventh (one).  That included a trio of two-run home runs by Caleb Estrada, Caden Thelen, and Jake Skaggs.

The Green and Gold's rally from eight runs down started with a sacrifice fly from pinch hitter Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) in the seventh, before a two-out, two-run double from Sanders made the score 10-5 for GVSU. 

Velazquez singled home pinch runner Steven Whitted (Beverly Hills, Mich. / Birmingham Groves) in the eighth to cut the deficit to just four (10-6), but Grand Valley State received all those runs back on a grand slam by Estrada (his second of the game) in the ninth.

Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Aurora, Ont. / Newmarket [Central Florida / Georgia Highlands College]) started and allowed five runs, four hits, and three walks over 4.1 IP to fall to 3-1 on the season.  Others who pitched in the nightcap include Nick Baker (Brighton, Mich. / [Lansing C.C.]), TJ McAllister (St. Clair Shores, Mich. / South Lake), Coy Plummer (New Hudson, Mich. / South Lyon), Carson Tehan (LaSalle, Ont. / Sandwich S.S.), and Ethan Getting (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Northern [Purdue Northwest]).


 
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