May 9, 2025, GRAND RAPIDS, MI - 

Softball Rolls Into Winners Bracket Final

The Grand Rapids Community College softball team kept its stellar season alive Thursday, advancing to the winners bracket final of the NJCAA Region XII tournament with a 5-2 win over Oakland Community College in Marysville, Mich. 

The 38-4 conference champion Raiders wasted no time jumping ahead, tallying five of their eight total hits in the opening inning to take a commanding 4-0 lead. Grace Chisek opened the scoring with an RBI single to bring home Kalani Stowe, followed by a two-run triple from Grace Salley. Libby VanFleet capped the first-inning surge with an RBI single of her own.

GRCC added one more run in the second when Natalee Beck's RBI single again plated Stowe. That would be all the Raiders needed, as Oakland managed to scratch across single runs in the fourth and sixth innings but couldn't mount a serious comeback.

Stowe improved to 17-0 on the season with another dominant performance in the circle, scattering four hits and striking out nine. Beck and VanFleet led the Raiders at the plate with two hits apiece.

GRCC now moves on to face Lansing Community College in the winners bracket final Friday at 2 p.m.

Baseball Falls Twice to Kellogg, Ends Season

The GRCC baseball team saw its season come to a close Thursday, falling in both games of a Region XII matchup with No. 24-ranked Kellogg Community College. The Bruins shut out the Raiders 4-0 in Game 1 before taking the second contest 9-1.

In the opener, Kyle O'Hearn pitched well for GRCC, allowing just four hits and one earned run over eight innings. However, the Raider offense couldn't get anything going, managing only six hits in the shutout loss. The Bruins broke open the tight game with three runs in the top of the ninth, stringing together four straight two-out hits. Peter Heintz and Xavier Allen each collected two hits in the loss.

Game 2 started with promise, as Jack Lockwood led off with a double and came around to score for an early 1-0 Raider lead. Unfortunately, that would be all the offense GRCC could muster, as they added only two more hits—a Ty Sandwick single in the third and an Andrew Conrad base hit in the seventh.

Starter Andrew Pohlmann took the loss, giving up four earned runs while striking out five over 5.1 innings.

The Raiders, who captured the MCCAA Western Conference title, finish their season with a 27-22 record.

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Interested in supporting GRCC Athletics?  All donations can be done through GRCC Athletic's Scholarship Fund and can specify what scholarship fund the gift is going to, such as the Hofmann scholarship. If you have any questions on how to support Athletics at Grand Rapids Community College, contact the Athletic Department via phone at (616) 234-3883 or email grccathletics@grcc.edu. Any support is appreciated and goes towards assisting our student-athlete scholarship funds.