Box Score Lourdes made its first appearance in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament on Wednesday evening, falling to Madonna 9-3 at Bailey Park in Battle Creek, Mich.
 
Taylor Derr (Toledo, Ohio/Whitmer H.S.) went 3-for-3 with a double, stolen base, run scored, and two runs batted in to pace the Gray Wolves offense.
 
Third-seeded Madonna jumped on top with three runs in the opening inning to take a lead that the Crusaders would not relinquish.  Back-to-back singles followed by a double by Erin Mayes to lead-off plated the first run and Kristen Drabek added a two-run single with two outs.
 
Lourdes battled back in the second, cutting the deficit to one.  Derr doubled to the gap in left-center, scoring Lauren Marstin (Brookneal, Va./William Campbell H.S.), who had reached on a fielder's choice, and Leslie Hafler (Randolph, Ohio/Waterloo H.S.), who had just tallied the Gray Wolves first hit.
 
A two-run triple by Karleigh Creighton in the bottom of the third pushed Madonna's lead to 5-2 as the Crusaders took advantage of a Lourdes error to plate a pair of unearned runs.
 
Derr singled with one out in the fifth, stole second, and scored on a two-out single by Taylor Duvall (Newport, Mich./Jefferson H.S.) to pull Lourdes to within 5-3, but that would be the  final run of the game for the Gray Wolves.
 
Madonna (30-16) answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, one of which was unearned.  The Crusaders added the final two runs in the sixth to secure the victory.
 
Bree Crampton earned the win (16-11) in the circle for Madonna, allowing the three runs on six Lourdes hits in a complete game effort.  She walked two while striking out 12 Gray Wolves.  Kelsey Graham (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.) suffered the loss (5-14), giving up all nine runs, only six of which were earned, on 11 hits.  She walked three and struck out one in five plus innings of work.
 
Drabek led Madonna's offense, going 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and two RBI while Creighton was 2-for-2 with three RBI.
 
Lourdes (12-23), the tournament's sixth seed, will return to the diamond on Thursday afternoon to face seventh-seeded Siena Heights in an elimination game.  First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Bailey Park.  With a victory, the Gray Wolves would play again at 5:30 p.m.