TOLEDO, Ohio – The Lourdes baseball team (7-11, 1-3 in WHAC) lost both games in their home opening doubleheader against the Aquinas Saints (8-13, 3-1 in WHAC) on Sunday evening.

Lourdes lost the first game 14-6 and the second game 14-3. An extremely windy atmosphere made it hard to throw strikes and the defense was bit with the error bug throughout the night. The Gray Wolves drop to 10^th place in the conference standings as the Saints rise to 4^th.

Game 1: L, 6-14
Aquinas' six-run monsoon of a second inning ultimately led to the Lourdes loss in game one as the Gray Wolves were able to muster some offense throughout the game, but not enough to overcome the early deficit.

Starting pitcher Landen Vance earned his second loss of the season for Lourdes after going two innings with eight hits allowed, five earned runs allowed, one walk and two strikeouts.

Lourdes' right fielder Jase Kennedy had the first error of the game after underthrowing the cut off man on an Aquinas single. The error allowed the runner on first base to move to third as the batter got into scoring position. A subsequent groundout by Aquinas' designated hitter Kaden Edwards scored the first run of the game for the Saints.

Then, all with two outs, Aquinas rattled off five hits in a row, including a three-run home run. The Saints exited the second inning with a 6-0 lead and did enough to chase Vance out of the game early.

Forced to go to his bullpen earlier than expected, Coach Bradford had to piece together long reliever outings the rest of the game. The third and fourth innings saw Nathan Ball give up three more runs on a Dylan Nguyen RBI double and Eric Bryce RBI single. In the fifth inning, Will Brose and Garrett Zimmerman gave up five more runs on a combination of walks, extra-base hits and errors as Aquinas' run total soared to 14.

On the positive side on the mound, Will Brose came back in the sixth inning and got out of a second-and-third jam without giving up a run. Then, Joe Smith came out in the seventh and didn't allow a hit to the Saints bats.

While Aquinas' bats went quiet in the later innings, Lourdes' depth on the bench started heating up the offense. The Gray Wolves scored two runs in the sixth inning on a two-out, two-run pinch-hit homerun by Layne Vance. The freshman from Metamora, Ohio launched the ball to deep left-centerfield for his first collegiate longball.

In the bottom of the seventh, again with two outs, Jay Breed hit a pinch-hit triple to deep centerfield. Ty Zapadka followed him up with a pinch-hit RBI single up the middle to tack on the sixth run of the contest for Lourdes. The Gray Wolves' other three runs came off the bats off Andrew Arnston and Landon Brown in the middle innings.

Overall, the offensive depth and 10 total hits were positives to take away from the loss. Meanwhile, the pitching staff's 11 walks and allowing crucial two-out hits were likely the game's biggest downfalls.

Game 2: L, 3-14
The second game started off much better than the first, with starting pitcher Ayden Hall getting multiple strikeouts in the first inning. Hall went four innings with just one earned run and four hits allowed. The junior from Sylvania, Ohio also struck out an impressive six Saints batters.

However, Hall exited the game with the team down 7-1 because of five walks and seven team defensive errors by five different Gray Wolves starters. The team ended the game with 10 errors, which resulted in eight unearned runs.

The Saints scored multiple runs off errors, gap doubles, and walks in each of the final three innings against freshman trio Adam Lemon, Ryan Ragusa, and Ryan DeShetler. Ragusa's sixth-inning didn't have an earned run as he also struck out two Aquinas batters.

Offensively, Lourdes' game one starting pitcher, Landen Vance, had a pinch-hit RBI single. Jase Kennedy had another incredible game at the plate, getting on base three times, with two hits and an RBI. Additionally, Morgan Kleps had his third RBI in the last three games off the bench.

Stats
Jase Kennedy led the Lourdes offense, getting on base nearly every plate appearance in the doubleheader. Alex Dupree's 12-game hitting streak ended in game one as the Aquinas pitching staff pitched aggressively inside to him all night. Dupree is still leading the team with a .410 average, which is good for fourth in the conference. Jace Bloomer is second in average, batting .308 in nine starts. Meanwhile, Andrew Arnston, Landon Brown, and Jase Kennedy are the other consistent starters hitting at or above .250. After his clutch game one performance, Layne Vance is batting .280 in 10 games played this season.

On the pitching side, Ayden Hall leads the team with 24 strikeouts and all starting pitchers with a 4.34 E.R.A. Zane Mullins leads the team with a 1.22 WHIP in his first four appearances of the season. After the first WHAC weekend, Lourdes ranks 8^th in the conference in team average (.259), 8^th in home runs (10), 11^th in stolen bases (24), 7^th in team E.R.A (7.03), and 9^th in fielding percentage (.943).

Next Up
Lourdes takes on 11^th-place Michigan-Dearborn for a home doubleheader on Saturday, March 21 at 1pm. They then take on the WHAC-leading Madonna Crusaders on Sunday, March 22 at 1pm for another home doubleheader.