Lourdes opened its 2024 season on Sunday afternoon, dropping a doubleheader to West Virginia Tech 3-1 and 8-2 at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston, W. Va.
 
"It was great to get started," head coach Josh Bradford said afterwards.  "With the exception of one inning, I thought we pitched very well today.  Our defense was solid.  Offensively, we needed to be better.  We showed flashes of it but did not string together very many quality at bats."
 
The Golden Bears took the early lead in game one with a run in the bottom of the second, only to see the Gray Wolves respond in the top of the third.  A.J. Brinson (Bloomington, Ind./South H.S.) led off the inning with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Jackson Kennedy (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.).
 
The game remained tied at one until the fifth when West Virginia Tech scored two more runs which proved to be the difference in the game.
 
Wyatt Smith (Sycamore, Ohio/Wynford H.S.) worked five innings on the hill for the Gray Wolves in the opener, allowing the three runs on seven hits before Bryn Biemiller (Newmarket, Ont./Bill Crothers Secondary H.S.) came on and tossed three innings of scoreless relief.
 
Lourdes managed just four hits in the opener.
 
In game two, West Virginia Tech (10-5) plated five runs in the bottom of the first inning, sending 10 batters to the plate and taking advantage of four walks and three hits.  The Golden Bears would add another run in the third to make it 6-0.
 
Lourdes scored two in the fourth as Cord Noble (Rockford, Mich./Rockford H.S.) delivered a RBI single and Caleb Edwards-Dugan (Lima, Ohio/Lima Senior H.S.) did the same to close the gap to four.  West Virginia Tech would respond with two of its own in the bottom of the fourth and neither team would cross the plate again over the final five frames.
 
Jacob Emerson (Port Clinton, Ohio/Genoa H.S.), Deion Kurtz (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria Catholic H.S.), and Avery Harper (Cardington, Ohio/Cardington-Lincoln H.S.) combined to toss four innings of shutout baseball to close out the game for the Gray Wolves.
 
Lourdes (0-2) will return to the diamond on Monday, March 4, as the Gray Wolves head to Kokomo, Ind. to battle Indiana-Kokomo. The first pitch in game one of the doubleheader is slated for 3 p.m. at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.