Box Score
John Crooks (Toledo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills H.S.) was a single shy of the cycle on Wednesday afternoon and Lourdes batted around in two of the six innings in which it came to the plate as the Gray Wolves cruised to a 12-2 victory over Defiance at Mercy Field.
 
Crooks doubled and scored in the fourth, hit a two-run home run to deep right in the fifth, and finished his day with a RBI triple in the sixth inning as Lourdes scored in five of the six innings in which it batted on the afternoon.
 
Every starter reached base at least twice as the Gray Wolves tallied 13 hits and were aided by nine Yellow Jacket walks.  Lourdes also took advantage of three Defiance errors and two hit batsmen.
 
Lourdes opened the scoring in the opening inning, plating four runs while batting around.  Andy Kefalos (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton H.S.) drove home Nick Toth (Medina, Ohio/Hudson H.S.) with the game's first run while Josh Redies (Saline, Mich./Saline H.S.) and Ryan Kovar (Cleveland, Ohio/Benedictine H.S.) each had run-scoring singles in the frame as well.
 
Crooks laced a shot off of the first baseman's glove for an error in the second which plated Toth, who tripled to lead off the inning to go along with his first inning double.
 
Defiance found the scoreboard with a single run in the third before Lourdes answered in the fourth as Victor Diaz (Medina, Ohio/Cloverleaf H.S.) drew a bases loaded, pinch hit, walk to plate Crooks, who led off the inning with his double.
 
After the Yellow Jackets scored a run in the top of the fifth to close to within 6-2, Crooks hit his two-run blast in the bottom of the inning while Diaz also added a two-run single in the inning.  Lourdes capped off the rout with two more runs in the sixth, one on Crooks' triple and another on a RBI single by Kefalos.
 
Crooks finished the game 3-for-5 with three runs batted in and three runs scored while Diaz also drove home three runs.  Toth and Kefalos both had two hits on the day as well.
 
Sean Shanks (Orlando, Fla./Dr. Phillips H.S.) earned the win (1-0) for Lourdes on the mound, allowing two runs and six hits in four innings of work.  Drew Miller suffered the loss (0-1) for Defiance (7-17), giving up four runs and four hits along with a walk while retiring just one batter in the first inning.
 
Lourdes (7-19) has now won four of its last five games and the Gray Wolves will return to Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference play on Friday afternoon, traveling to Livonia, Mich. to open a four-game series with Madonna.  The series has been moved up one day and will now take place with doubleheaders beginning at 2 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.