SAGINAW. Mich. - The Dragons scored the first two runs of the day in the doubleheader, but the Cardinals scored three in the bottom of the second and held TU scoreless over the final 12 innings on the day as Tiffin (13-33, 10-22) dropped a pair of games against Saginaw Valley State (21-22, 16-15) 5-2 and 2-0.
Donnie Smith (4-5) took the loss from the bump in game one, allowing seven runs and five runs (four earned) over six innings of work. Chris Pistorio (4-4) also went all six innings, allowing six hits and two runs, only one of which was earned in the second game.
Cory Osborne led the TU offense with a single and double in six at-bats and an RBI. Cory Hornyak, Val Helldobler and Pat Curtin had a pair of singles while Williams added a sacrifice fly.
Eric Hummel improved to 3-2 in game one for SVSU, allowing eight hits and two runs. Colin Coulter won his first game of the season in five decisions in game two, allowing three hits and no runs in the complete game win.
Kyle Parks had two singles in four at-bats with two RBI's and two runs scored. Mike VanAlst had a single in four at-bats, but contributed two RBI's.
Pat Curtin led off the day with a single and a one-out walk put two on with one out for the Dragons. Osborne doubled to left field for an RBI and put a pair of runners in scoring position, but an infield pop out and a line out ended the Tiffin threat. TU manufactured a run in the second when Hornyak led off the inning with a single, stole second, was sacrificed to third and scored on Williams sacrifice fly.
Saginaw Valley State took the lead for good in the bottom of the second with a trio of runs. Three-straight singles loaded the bases before a VanAlst single tied the game and put men on the corners with no outs. A sacrifice fly by Parks gave Saginaw Valley State the lead. An unearned SVSU run in the fifth and a suicide squeeze play with the bases loaded in the sixth plated key insurance runs in the home team's 5-2 win.
Pistorio recorded one of his best strike totals of the year, but SVSU was able to scratch out single tallies in the fifth and sixth for the win. Parks led off the fifth for SVSU with a single, moved to second on a groundout and scored on Drew Woock's two-out single. Parks added a sacrifice fly to score an unearned run in the sixth.
Tiffin only had one runner in scoring position in the second game when Williams walked, advanced to second when Connor Wendt added a bunt single, but a strikeout and groundout kept TU off the board.
The Dragons return to action in their final games of the 2011 season tomorrow in another double header with Saginaw Valley State. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 1 p.m.
