The Tiffin University baseball team lost game one 6-5, which turned out to be a 12 inning marathon, but fought back and took care of business in game two 7-5.
Luke Fraley took the ball in game three for the Dragons. He weaved his way through the Pioneer lineup for five innings before running into some trouble.
The Dragon offense got on the board in the 3rd. Elijah Sanabria singled to center field, and then Malone self inflicted a wound with a ball thrown into the Dragon dugout to plate Alec McCurry and Devon Fisk. The final run of the inning came off the bat of Nick Hueneburg with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Isaac Perry.
In the 5th, Nick Hueneburg stood at third base with Cody Spires at the plate. Spires laid down a bunt, and the Dragons executed the safety squeeze to perfection with Hueneburg scampering home to make it 4-0.
In the 6th, Malone struck for four runs with two hits, a hit batsman, and two walks to tie the game at 4-4. Tiffin untied the game in the bottom half of the inning with an Isaac Perry single to left field to score Wyatt Edwards making it 5-4.
In the 7th, Garrett Scott trotted to the mound with a victory in sight, but Malone had other thoughts on their mind, They loaded the bases and Scott walked in the tying run to bring on free baseball.
Both teams were held off the board in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and the 11th, but in the 12th Malone pushed a run home. Back to back Dragon errors and an intentional walk loaded the bases. Then a dying quail down the right field line fell in to give the Pioneers a 6-5 lead.
The Dragons threatened in the bottom of the inning, but with one out and two on a bouncing ball to the second baseman ended their comeback hopes in the form of a 4-6-3 game ending double play.
Mike Cooperider took the loss on the mound, but pitched brilliantly out of the Tiffin pen, throwing 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 hits, 1 run, none earned, and punched out 6. At the plate, Isaac Perry, Elijah Sanabria, and Nick Hueneburg each were 2 for 4 with an RBI.
In game four, Tyler Nichols toed the rubber for Tiffin. He baffled Pioneer hitters, striking out 6. His offense plated five runs in the 1st inning. The Dragons plated those runs with four hits and two Malone errors. This big inning gave Tiffin the lead at 5-1, and they never relinquished it.
After Malone scored a run in the top of the 4th, Tiffin pushed two runs home with four hits and two more Malone errors, and led 7-2.
The Pioneers did their best to make it interesting, scoring two in the 5th, making it 7-4, and pushed another run home in the 7th to make it 7-5. With the tying run aboard, Brady Ward was summoned from the bullpen to close out the game. Ward punched out the final batter of the game to preserve the Dragon win and earn the save.
Nichols earns the victory, throwing 6 innings, scattering 9 hits, giving up 5 runs, only 2 earned, and walked 2. Offensively, Tiffin banged out 11 hits as a team, and Nick Hueneburg and Cody Spires led the charge. Hueneburg was 3 for 3 with an RBI, and Cody Spires was 3 for 4 and scored 2 runs.
The split moves the Dragons to 15-24 overall and 9-13 in GLIAC play.
