May 11, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Community College baseball and softball pitchers dominated their competition on Thursday, helping the teams advance in the NJCAA Region XII tournaments.
Izzy Regner struck out a career-high 16 batters as the softball team shut out Mott Community College, 3-0 to advance to the winner's bracket final.
Jerad Berkenpas, Caden VanDeBurg, Lucas McKinney and Ethan London allowed just two runs in the team’s two-game sweep over Ivy Tech Community College to advance to the final four of the regional baseball tournament.
In the softball game, Vanessa Hewitt, Annika Roersma and Lauren James drove in runs for GRCC.
In game one of the baseball doubleheader, Berkenpas held Ivy Tech scoreless until the seventh inning.
The offense totaled 18 hits and cruised to a 12-2 victory.
Every batter had at least one hit including a five-for-five performance by shortstop Joe Hoeks and a team-high three RBI. Trevin Laming opened up the scoring for GRCC with his ninth home run of the year in the first inning.
In the nightcap, GRCC's Laming, Hoeks, Fernando Rivera-Calderon and Zacarias Salinas all had a hit, helping the team to a 3-0 victory.
Both the baseball and softball teams earned their way to regional tournaments by winning the MCCAA Northern Conference crown.
The softball team (24-16) moves on to face Jackson College on Friday at noon, while the baseball team (35-12) awaits its opponent for next week's final four.
This story was reported by Ben Brown.