The Lourdes baseball team dropped a pair of games on Thursday afternoon at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz., falling to Valley City State and Mayville State.
 
In the first matchup against Valley City State (4-10 overall), Lourdes struck first as Jay Denman (Toledo, Ohio/Saint Francis de Sales) drilled a triple down the left field line in the first at bat for Lourdes before Cameron Gallo (Mason, Ohio/Bishop Fenwick) hit an RBI single to put the Gray Wolves ahead 1-0.
 
In the top half of the third inning, Valley City State was able to take advantage of a defensive miscue by the Gray Wolves and score its first two runs of the game to take a 2-1 lead.
 
The Gray Wolves defense was able to escape the VCS offense on multiple occasions, but the Vikings were able to add another run in the top of the sixth to stretch its lead to 3-1.
 
Michael Davis (Whittier, Cal./California) was able to score following a defensive miscue by the Vikings in the bottom of the eighth, getting Lourdes within 3-2. A Corey Righman (Ashville, Ohio/Teays Valley) triple in the bottom of the ninth put Lourdes in scoring position, but the Gray Wolves couldn't get any closer as Valley City State closed out the victory.
 
Liam Bloom (Swanton, Ohio/Swanton) went 7.0 innings and fanned four batters to lead Lourdes on the bump.
 
In the second contest of the afternoon against Mayville State (5-7 overall), Lourdes got off to a quick start once again as George Pastor (Walled Lake, Mich./Central) hit a double before Gallo was able to drive him home with a single to center field.
 
The Gray Wolf defense held Mayville State scoreless until the top of the fourth inning, where the Comets evened the score at 1-1. Lourdes answered in the bottom half of the inning after Denman drove Righman home with a single into left field to give Lourdes a 2-1 advantage.
 
The Comets responded with an 8-run fifth inning to take a commanding 9-2 lead. Mayville State added two more in the sixth inning to push the lead to 11-2. A triple from Righman in the bottom of the sixth inning paved way for Davis to hit a sacrifice fly and plate the run to get Lourdes within 11-3.
 
Lourdes made a late attempt to comeback as Gallo drove home a run in the bottom of the eighth, cutting the deficit to 11-4, but the Gray Wolves couldn't get any closer. Mayville State added eight insurance runs in the ninth to seal the victory.
 
Righman had two triples and a double while going 3-for-4 and added two runs. Pastor and Denman also each recorded four hits in the games.
 
Lourdes (6-4 overall) returns to action tomorrow afternoon as it takes on Buena Vista and Bethesda at the Kino Sports Complex.