GARY, Ind. – Purdue Northwest will compete as the sixth seed in the 2022 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Baseball Tournament, hosted this weekend at U.S. Steel Yard – home of the Gary SouthShore Railcats independent minor league baseball team. 

All tickets are $10 per day and available online or at the door. Age 2 and under are free. Visit the Tournament Central link to purchase tickets online.

PNW (18-21) will face top-seeded Davenport (30-20), who is ranked first in this week's Midwest Regional rankings. The opening round game is slated for Thursday at 3 p.m. CDT in a rematch from last weekend as the regular-season GLIAC-champion Panthers swept the Pride, but three of the four games were decided by just two runs. In fact, five of the previous seven PNW losses in the all-time series between these two teams were decided by two runs or fewer. Davenport has claimed 15 of the 16 prior matchups.

With its second GLIAC Tournament appearance, the Pride are in search of the program's first postseason win since joining the league. PNW previously qualified as the fifth seed in 2019, but fell in a pair of tightly contested tournament matchups against Wayne State and Saginaw Valley State.

Overall, PNW's lone postseason victory was recorded when the Pride knocked off top-seeded Judson, 3-2, in the 2017 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (NAIA) Tournament.

This season, the Pride currently hold a school-record .304 team batting average led by senior outfielder Ray Hilbrich (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) (.391, 9 2B, 3 HR, 20 RBI) and sophomore infielder Ethan Imlach (Mokena, Ill./Mount Carmel) (.368, 9 2B, 1 3B, 29 RBI). Anthony Fumagalli (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North High School), Tyler Schultz (Hobart, Ind./Hobart), Alex Gasbarro (New Lenox, Ill./St. Laurence High School), Jack Gallagher (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington North High School) and Hayden Matulich (San Jose, Calif./Pioneer) are all hitting over the .300 mark, along with regular contributors Jake Soules (Troy, Mich./Troy High School), Luke Montgomery (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence High School) and Bret Matthys (Cedar Lake, Ind./Hanover Central) in the lineup. The group leads an offensive attack that is only three doubles and three home runs shy of new team records in those categories.

On the mound, the freshman left-hander Matthys logged a team-low 3.97 earned-run average in six starts. Senior lefty Joe Sullivan (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein High School) leads the team in wins with four (4-1), while junior Joe Buikema (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) (3-2), sophomore Sam Shively (Mishawaka, Ind./Mishawaka (Taylor)) (3-5) and sophomore Noah Burgh (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw Community High School) (3-1) each have three wins. Shively led the staff with 54.0 innings pitched and Buikema made the most appearances with 14, including four starts.

The double-elimination GLIAC Tournament gets underway on Thursday with No. 2 seed Wayne State against No. 5 seed Saginaw Valley State at 11 a.m. CDT, followed by the matchup between No. 6 Purdue Northwest and No. 1 Davenport. The nightcap features No. 3 Northwood against No. 4 Grand Valley State.

If PNW pulls off the upset, it would play Friday at 3 p.m. against the loser of the Northwood/Grand Valley State game. A loss in the opener would put the Pride up against the loser of Wayne State/Saginaw Valley State in Friday's 11 a.m. elimination game.

All games are played at U.S. Steel Yard with the exception of the first two Saturday games, which will be held at Dowling Park due to prior scheduled events at the Steel Yard.

 

THURSDAY, May 12
GAME 2	11 AM	#2 Wayne State vs. #5 Saginaw Valley State
GAME 1	3 PM	#1 Davenport vs. #6 Purdue Northwest
GAME 3	7 PM	#3 Northwood vs. #4 Grand Valley State
FRIDAY, May 13
GAME 4	11 AM	Loser #1 vs. Loser #2
GAME 5	3 PM	Winner #1 vs. Loser #3
GAME 6	7 PM	Winner #2 vs. Winner #3
SATURDAY, May 14
GAME 7	10 AM**	At Dowling Park
GAME 8	2 PM**	At Dowling Park
Game 9	7:30 PM	At U.S. Steel Yard
SUNDAY, May 15
GAME 10	11:30 AM	Championship Game
GAME 11		If-Necessary Game

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