TOLEDO, Ohio - The University of Michigan-Dearborn began a new era in athletics with the first baseball games in school history, with the Wolverines opening the 2017-18 season with a pair of games against Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference foe Lourdes University Saturday at Mercy Field in ToledAfter falling 13-3 in eight innings in the first game, the Wolverines battled the Gray Wolves into extra innings in the second contest, eventually falling 9-8 in 10 innings. UM-Dearborn opens the season 0-2 overall and 0-2 in the WHAC.
Lourdes took advantage of 13 Wolverine walks and three hit batters in the first game to pull away from UM-Dearborn. Several program firsts happened for the Wolverines early in the contest. Daniel Kerr(JR/Macomb, MI) picked up the first hit and first RBI in UM-Dearborn history with an RBI single scoring Chase Turner (SR/Franklin, MI) in the first inning to give his team an early 1-0 lead.
Kerr finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Cole VanWagoner (SO/Mancelona, MI) added a double and a run scored. Alex Leija (FR/Southgate, MI) got the first start of the season for the Wolverines. He went 2.2 innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on one hit and eight walks, while striking out three. Leija is 0-1 on the season. UM-Dearborn finished game one with three runs on six hits and committed one error.
Lourdes jumped out in front in the second game with three runs in the first inning, but UM-Dearborn got the bats going and starting pitcher John Dyda(FR/Wyandotte, MI) settled in on the mound. After Turner doubled home a run in the third, Kerr came through with a three-run double to put UM-Dearborn up 4-3.
The Wolverines remained up one until the sixth when head coach Matt Cunningham called for a squeeze play on a bunt from Dan Bos (FR/Livonia, MI) to score Shaun Hannibal (FR/Brighton, MI). Turner extended the lead to 7-3 with a two-run single to center.
Lourdes chipped away at the Wolverine lead taking an 8-7 advantage with a pair of runs in the eighth. Turner came up big once again for UM-Dearborn in the ninth, leading off the inning with a solo home run to tie the score, helping send the game to extra innings. Lourdes found the winning run in the 10th on an RBI double.
Turner went 3-for-4 with two runs and four RBIs, while Andrew Capone (FR/Warren, MI), Justin Dolney(FR/Canton, MI) and Hannibal each added two hits. The Wolverines finished with eight runs on 11 hits and one error.
Dyda went six innings on the mound. He allowed six runs, five earned on 11 hits while walking one and striking out seven. Cameron Winn (FR/Wyandotte, MI) (0-1) took the loss, allowing one run on three hits, walking one and striking out three.
The teams play the final game of the three-game set at 1 p.m. Sunday in Toledo.
