ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – The Lourdes softball team (0-2, 0-0 in WHAC) dropped their opening two games of the season to Division-1 Oakland (6-3, 0-0 in HZL) on Friday afternoon.

The Golden Grizzlies play in the Division-1 Horizon League and recently shut out WHAC-foe Michigan-Dearborn last week. Lourdes faired slightly better than the Wolverines, losing the first game 3 to 8 and the second game 2 to 7.

Game 1
Oakland scored the first five runs of the opener in the first four innings off of Gray Wolves sophomore pitcher Cassi Kieper and senior pitcher Mallori Bradley. Bradley struck out two and gave up five runs. Kieper struck out two and gave up three runs.

Junior first baseman Taylor Leggins got the Lourdes offense going with a two-rbi double in the sixth to cut the Golden Grizzlies lead to three runs. The momentum seemed to be swinging towards Lourdes but Oakland took it right back with a three-run bottom half of the sixth, which sealed the Oakland win.

Game 2
Lourdes freshman Elena Scott got the game two start on the mound for the Gray Wolves. The North Olmsted, Ohio native gave up five runs in the first inning before being pulled for Mallori Bradley. Bradley pitched the majority of the rest of the game, giving up just two more runs in her four innings of work.

Oakland's seven runs of offense proved too much to overcome for Lourdes against Division-1 pitching. The Gray Wolves did manage to score two late-game runs to cut the lead to five, but would go on to lose by the same deficit.

Series Stats
Taylor Leggins led the offense with two rbi's and a .333 batting average. Sophomore outfielder Ryleigh Mercer had a pinch-hit rbi single for Lourdes in her season debut in the second game. Mallori Bradley led the team with eight innings pitched and a pair of strikeouts.

Next Up
The Gray Wolves will travel on their spring break trip to Melbourne, Fla. for the Space Coast Spring Games from March 8 through March 13.