Davenport took advantage of five unearned runs to jump out to an early lead and Lourdes was never able to recover on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers defeated the Gray Wolves 9-1 at the Farmers Athletic Complex in Grand Rapids, Mich. in the season opener for each school.
 
"I thought we played okay baseball for the first time out," head coach Jeremy Snow said afterwards.  "We made two critical errors that cost us five runs.  Those really hurt.  We didn't execute our game plan, but we had a lot of young players getting their first taste of collegiate baseball.  Hopefully we have all of the nerves out of the way now and are ready to go tomorrow."
 
The Panthers took advantage of a dropped foul ball in the third inning to eventually plate the first run on a sacrifice fly.  Another miscue in the fourth led to four more unearned runs before Davenport plated two more runs in the fifth to build a 7-0 lead.
 
Lourdes got on the scoreboard in the sixth as George Pastor (Walled Lake, Mich./Central H.S.) singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on a Dallas Riggs (Prescott, Ariz./Paradise Valley H.S.) single through the left side.
 
Davenport responded with two more runs in the sixth though before the Gray Wolves' bullpen tossed scoreless seventh and eighth innings.
 
Matt York (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.) started and suffered the loss (0-1) despite not giving up an earned run.  He yielded five runs on six hits in 3.2 innings of work. 
 
"Matt pitched well today, but we didn't back him in the field," Snow added.
 
Grant Wolfram earned the win (1-0) for Davenport, allowing the one run on six hits while striking out 12 in six innings of work. 
 
Pastor, Riggs, and Glen Crabtree (Medina, Ohio/Black River H.S.), each had two hits apiece for the Gray Wolves to account for six of Lourdes' seven hits in the contest.
 
Lourdes (0-1, 0-1 WHAC) and Davenport (1-0, 1-0) will close out the three-game weekend series on Sunday afternoon with a doubleheader.  First pitch in game one is set for 1 p.m. at the Farmers Athletic Complex.