CALEDONIA, Mich. - The moment was a long time in the making as the Davenport baseball team picked up their first-ever Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win. The Panthers defeated preseason favorite Wayne State, 10-4, behind a career-high five RBI from Austin Petravicius and Grant Wolfram's first win of the season on the mound.

Both the Panthers and Warriors are now 1-1 in the GLIAC as Davenport responded after a 12-4 loss yesterday to the Warriors. In this contest, the Panthers scored big runs early with five runs in the second and three more in the third. DU led 5-0 after they collected six hits in the second inning. Nolan Bryant drove in the first run with a single through the left side. Zac Wilson singled home a run through the left side and Petravicius delivered a big two-run single also through the hole between short and third.

Wayne State struck out four times in the first two innings but had some success against Wolfram in the third with three runs. Wolfram walked three batters and allowed two hits before recording an out. Ryan Mergener drew a bases loaded free pass and Brad Baldwin also had a RBI single for the Warriors. The third run scored on a double play off the bat of JT Conti which helped stop momentum.

Davenport regained a five-run lead as they answered with three runs in the bottom of the third. The rally started with two outs as Bryant singled to left followed by a single from Alex Huard. Austin Lansky hit a two-out drive to left and the ball was dropped allowing a run to score. DU took advantage of the error which should have ended the inning as Petravicius had a two-run single to left scoring Huard and Lansky.

Wolfram gave up a run in the fifth coming unearned after Mergener had a RBI single up the middle. Wolfram got the win going five innings and allowed five hits. He walked four and struck out seven after a 114-pitch outing (73 strikes). Pete Zeimis kept the lead safe over the next four innings allowing no runs and three hits. Davenport added runs in the seventh and eighth for the 10-4 score. Zeimis walked just one and struck out four to earn his second save of the season.

Petravicius drove in his career-high fifth run with a double in the seventh and then Brian Sobieski tripled to lead off the eighth and scored with one out on a RBI groundout by Oscar Heredia. Petravicius finished with two doubles upping his season total to nine and was 4-for-5. Sobieski went 3-for-5 with his second triple of the season. Huard and Bryant also had two hits on the day for DU who collected 15 hits.

The two teams will slug it out tomorrow (Mar. 25) in a doubleheader of seven-inning games starting at noon from Farmers Insurance Athletic Conference.