The Tiffin University baseball team traveled to Columbus to take on the Ohio Dominican Panthers on a cool and breezy afternoon. Tiffin snagged game one, but ODU grabbed game two for the split.
In game one, Brady Ward garnered the start. The Dragon offense struck for a run in the 2nd inning. Cody Spires doubled to leadoff the inning, and scored on an Alex Hartley booted bouncer to shortstop.
After Ward dispatched the Panthers in the bottom of the 2nd, Tiffin trapped the Panthers in a big inning. The Dragons crossed the plate five times in the inning on five hits and two ODU errors. Garrett Vernau led off the inning with an infield hit, and scored on an Isaac Perry double to the left center field gap. Elijah Sanabria then singled to put runners on the corners. Nick Hueneburg reached on an error to score Perry, and Tiffin led 3-0. Cody Spires collected an RBI with a sacrifice fly to score Sanabria, and Alex Hartley doubled down the left field line to score Hueneburg and Tiffin now led 5-0. The final run came off the bat of Seth Bryant with a single to left field.
The only two Panther runs of the game came in the bottom of the 3rd. ODU plated those runs with a big fly to left center field, but TU still held a 6-2 advantage.
The final Tiffin run came courtesy of a Cody Spires double to plate Sanabria. The Dragons finished off the Panthers to take game one by the final of 7-2.
Brady Ward earned the win on the mound, tossing 5 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 runs, all earned, and walked 2. In the batters box, TU smacked 12 hits, including 5 doubles. Elijah Sanabria was 3 for 4 with two runs scored. Cody Spires was 2 for 3 with a pair of RBIs, and Alex Hartley was 2 for 4 with two runs batted in as well.
In game two, Tiffin got on the board quickly. In the 2nd inning, the Dragons netted two runs on three hits. Alex Hartley got the scoring going with a single to plate Cody Spires, and an Isaac Perry infield single pushed the second run home.
Tiffin collected another run in the 4th with a Garrett Vernau sacrifice fly to plate Alex Hartley. Dragon starter Patrick Bellinger cruised through the ODU lineup, throwing 5 1/3 innings, giving up 6 hits, an earned run, and punched out 3.
The Dragons took a 4-1 lead to the 7th, and looked to their bullpen to finish the game. But where everything was going right, it suddenly all went wrong. Tiffin gave up 6 runs on 5 hits, and committed 2 errors in the inning, and Ohio Dominican regained the lead and never looked back.
The Dragons tacked on a run in the 8th, but it wasn't enough as ODU stole victory from the jaws of defeat, winning 9-5.
Tyler Nichols takes the loss in relief, tossing 1 1/3 innings, giving up 2 hits, 4 runs, none earned, walked 1, and fanned a batter. Isaac Perry had another good game at the plate, going 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs.
The split moves TU to 17-25 overall and 10-14 in GLIAC play. The Dragons will take their show on the road this weekend as they head to Painesville to take on the Lake Erie Storm
