The Tiffin University (0-1) baseball team opened the 2024 season on Friday afternoon with the first of a four-game series against Charleston, suffering a 7-3 defeat.
 
TU got on the board early in the top of the first as Ty Hatfield got a hold of the second pitch of his at-bat and launched it over the wall in left field. The Dragons held a 1-0 lead through the first two innings as starting pitcher Noah Kandel held the opposition hitless.
 
Charleston's offense got going in the third however, as it tallied four runs. Two of which came on a two-RBI single to right field. Adam Deitschel led off the top of the fourth with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. Tiffin made it a one run game later that same inning after Hatfield recorded his second RBI of the game on a groundout which scored Aidan Grabowski.
 
The Golden Eagles tacked on three more runs in the bottom half of the fourth on a pair of extra base hits to make it 7-3, a lead they held through the final five innings.
 
Hatfield started the season strong, going 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBI's. Grabowski and Deitschel each recorded hits as well as a run scored. Zach Johnson posted six strikeouts in his three innings of work, allowing three runs on four hits while Joey Kench closed out the final two innings with just one hit and a strikeout in two innings.
 
The four-game series continues with a doubleheader tomorrow, beginning at 4 p.m. with the fourth and final game of the series on Sunday at 11 a.m.