TOLEDO, Ohio – The Lourdes baseball team (11-19, 5-9 in WHAC) dropped both games of their home doubleheader against Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) (22-12, 12-2 IN WHAC) on Friday afternoon.

The Racers' offense hit five home runs combined between the two games. Meanwhile, the Lourdes offense had nine total hits with no runs coming across the board in either contest.

Game #1: L, 0-10
Lourdes dropped Game one of Friday's doubleheader to UNOH, 0-10, in a seven-inning contest.

UNOH wasted no time setting the tone, striking for three runs in the first inning behind home runs from Eliomar Otero and Cesar Grau. The Otero home run was on the very first pitch of the game. The Racers continued to build on their lead in the second inning with an RBI single from Zach Grigalis, making it 4-0 early.

The game broke open in the fourth inning when Grau delivered again, blasting his second home run of the game—a three-run shot—to extend the lead to 7-0. Grau finished with a dominant performance at the plate, going 3-for-4 in the game with two home runs and five RBI's.

UNOH added insurance runs late, including a sacrifice RBI from Tyler Huff in the sixth and a two-run home run from Nolan Hull in the seventh to cap the scoring at 10-0.

On the mound, Daniel Healy was dominant for UNOH, throwing a complete game shutout for his sixth victory of the season. He allowed just six hits while striking out seven and issuing no walks in the win.

Lourdes managed six hits on the day, with Drake Sekinger once again leading the way with a 2-for-3 performance, including a double. Jase Kennedy, Jace Bloomer, Andrew Arnston, and Brad Hughes each added a hit, but the Gray Wolves were unable to generate any scoring opportunities.

Brenden Holland took the loss for Lourdes, allowing seven runs over four innings, including three home runs. Ryan Butler provided a scoreless inning of relief, while Nathan Ball allowed three runs over the final two innings.

Game #2: L, 0-12
The second game was quite similar to the first but was much closer in the beginning innings. Lourdes' freshman pitcher J.J Foti got the start and shut down the Racers in the first inning.

Foti then got two quick outs in the second inning before issuing a few walks. One pitch away from ending the inning, on a full count, UNOH's Nolan Hull hit his second home run of the afternoon to knock in three runs.

UNOH kept the 3-0 lead until the fourth when Eliomar Otero added a two-run single on top of Cesar Grau's two-run single. Foti exited the game after the fourth inning with eight hits and seven runs allowed.

Nolan Hull continued his impressive performance with a two-run opposite field double down the line in the fifth inning off of Lourdes' reliever Adam Lemon. The freshman from Swanton, Ohio gave up two more runs in the inning off of singles and was pulled without recording an out.

With the Racers' lead extended to 11-0, Zane Mullins tried to close the door on the fifth inning. He got two outs but developed some control issues and was taken out of the game after UNOH's Tyler Huff hit an RBI double for the team's 12^th run of the game and fifth run of the long fifth inning.

Eventually, freshman Ryan Ragusa came in and started shutting down the UNOH offense. Ragusa got out of the jam in the fifth and allowed just two base runners in the sixth, without giving up another run. Logan Moss also pitched well in the seventh but the Lourdes offense couldn't make up the deficit.

Leading the way for Lourdes' offense in the second game was junior first baseman Alex Dupree. The Northview high school graduate had two of the team's three hits. 

Overall, an overabundance of walks combined with timely UNOH hitting led to the afternoon defeats for the Gray Wolves. Lourdes is now on a three-game losing streak and is 2-8 since sweeping Michigan-Dearborn. The Gray Wolves are now out of the top-8 in the WHAC standings for the first time all season, slipping 1.5 games back from No. 8-seeded Siena Heights.

Next Up
Lourdes rematches UNOH on Monday, April 6 at 1pm for another conference home doubleheader. The team will then take on Bowling Green in a D1/NAIA crossover game with a regional opponent.