Grand Valley State will take on Findlay in a GLIAC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon (Apr. 8), with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The home twinbill will look a little different than most home doubleheaders in Allendale, as both teams will be wearing special uniforms for the Breast Cancer Awareness games.
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Both GVSU and Findlay will be wearing pink uniforms to not only show their support for breast cancer awareness, but they'll also unite to show support for Indianapolis' head coach Melissa Frost, who was diagnosed with breast cancer five months ago and began chemotherapy treatments in February. There are a total of 43 teams from 16 states and 14 athletic conferences that will be wearing new uniforms on Saturday, all of which are doing so to show their support for Frost, who is in her 13th season at UIndy.
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Third-year GVSU head coach
Dana Callihan had no hesitation in joining the fight against breast cancer and to show support to a fellow regional team and head coach. "Coach Frost was diagnosed in November and they reached out to us a few months ago with the idea," explained Callihan. "They want to get as many teams as possible to participate on the same day to raise awareness. My family and my players have also been affected by breast cancer recently so we wanted to participate and show our support to Coach Frost and everyone that is fighting this terrible disease."
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The so-called campaign is termed "Faith. Fight. Frost." and competing teams will either wear pink jerseys with black and white script or black jerseys with pink and white lettering. Both sets of uniforms have the "Faith. Fight. Frost." slogan on the back, with corresponding logos on the front of the jersey.
The following teams will all participate in the cause on Saturday: Kentucky Wesleyan, Southern Indiana, Shorter, Missouri S&T, Alabama Huntsville, IUPUI, Regis, Carson Newman, Marian, St. Joseph's, Quincy, Valdosta State, Delta State, Indianapolis, Drury, Grand Valley State, McKendree, Marshall, Armstrong State, Ohio Dominican, Lewis, Coker, Northern State, Bethel, Union, North Alabama, Trevecca Nazarene, Goshen, Findlay, Lee, Evansville, Lindenwood, Wayne State, Mississippi, Purdue, Truman State, Ashland, St. Francis Fort Wayne, Missouri-St. Louis, Southwest Minnesota State, Black Hills State, Henderson State, and McCutcheon High School.
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Despite being an in-region opponent, GVSU and Indianapolis don't face off on the diamond very often, although the teams have recently started to grow a healthy rivalry. The teams have played each of the last four years and met in the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons. The Lakers and Greyhounds played in the 2013 Super Regional series in Indiana, met in the 2014 NCAA Tournament in Detroit, and squared off in the Midwest Region Tournament again in Indianapolis last year.
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