Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Lourdes opened its Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference schedule on Saturday afternoon coming up on the short end of both games of the doubleheader at Mercy Field against Aquinas.  The Saints took the opener 10-1 before scoring twice in the top of the seventh to post a 5-4 victory in the nightcap.
 
“I told the guys today is a good learning experience for them,” head coach Andy Ham said after the games.  “We are a talented club but we have some learning to do.  We need to learn how to win games when we're ahead and chip away when we're behind.  We had a chance to add on against a good team in the second game when we had the lead and did not do it.”
 
In the opener Aquinas scored single runs in each of the first three innings to jump out to a quick 3-0 lead.  The lead grew to 4-0 in the sixth, but stayed there heading into the bottom of the eighth when the Gray Wolves finally broke through.  Garrett Jex (Bowling Green, Ohio/Bowling Green H.S.) tripled to lead off the inning and scored one batter later on Tyler Trame's (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) pinch-hit ground out.
 
The Saints sent 11 batters to the plate in the ninth though to end any hope of a Lourdes comeback, scoring six times in the inning.
 
Michael Penny went 3-for-5 for Aquinas in the opener, one of five hitters with a multi-hit effort as the Saints tallied 14 hits for the contest. 
 
Vince Misiewicz went eight innings for the victory (2-1), scattering just six hits and allowing the one run.  Frank Shaffer (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg H.S.) suffered the loss (1-2), working into the ninth.  He allowed seven runs, six of which were earned, on 11 hits.
 
Lourdes scored quickly in the second game, as Phill Dysard (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) led off with a triple.  Mike Calloway (Detroit, Mich./Cass Tech H.S.) and Cole Fitzgerald (Rome, N.Y./Cedarville [Ohio] H.S.) both walked to load the bases before John Crooks (Toledo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills H.S.) plated the first run with a sacrifice fly.  After an error reloaded the bases, Sam Jerome (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton H.S.) drove home two runs with a single up the middle.  Andy Kefalos (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton H.S.) added a sacrifice fly giving the Gray Wolves a 4-0 lead after one.
 
Aquinas scored two in the second on a double by Elliott Drain and added a third on a bases loaded walk by Scott Witkop.  Nathan Scanlan (Parkersburg, W. Va./Lake [Ohio] H.S.) worked out of  a bases loaded, none out jam in the inning to limit the damage though after coming on from the bullpen, giving Lourdes the one run lead into the late innings.
 
The Gray Wolves could not add on any insurance runs the rest of the way, despite having hits in five of the final six innings.  Aquinas then took advantage of two Lourdes errors in the seventh to score a pair of runs, the go-ahead tally coming on a bases loaded hit batsman, to earn the victory.
 
Brendan Penny earned the win (2-1), giving up just six hits in six innings while Tyler Cole notched the save with a scoreless seventh.  Matt Olsavsky (Waterville, Ohio/Anthony Wayne H.S.) suffered the loss (1-1), giving up two runs, one of which was unearned, in the final inning.
 
Dysard was the lone Gray Wolf with multiple hits in the nightcap as Lourdes tallied seven over the seven innings.  Drain had two of the Saints' five hits and drove in three runs in the contest.
 
Lourdes (8-11, 0-2 WHAC) and Aquinas (9-4, 2-0) will wrap up their four-game weekend series on Sunday afternoon with a doubleheader.  First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. at Mercy Field.