Tiffin University baseball (8-8) gave Division I Bowling Green everything they wanted and more, but the Falcons pushed one across in the eighth inning to break a 7-7 tie and win the game, 8-7.
The first three innings of the game were critical in the outcome.
The Dragons took a 1-0 lead in their first plate appearance of the game but could only manage one run despite loading the bases twice in the inning. The lone run came when Griff Cady reached on a fielder's choice and Ty Hatfield scored. The Falcons tried for the inning ending double play but Cady beat it out. With two outs, Adam Deitschel drew a walk to reload the bases but Luke Westerman flew out to end the inning.
The Falcons answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the first. The Falcons home half of the third played a key role in the outcome of the game. Austin Guerra replaced TU started Keegan Phillips and the first two batters reached to start the inning. The third batter reached via error by Guerra which pushed across two runs and the batter made it to third. BG's third inning featured three runs despite just one hit and two of the three runs were unearned.
Both teams added runs in the fifth. Tiffin scored one and BG scored three which gave the Falcon a 7-2 lead through five.
TU answered in a big way in the sixth, scoring six to tie the game at seven. Tiffin's sixth featured five runs on seven hits and it all started when Deitschel led off the inning and was hit by a pitch in a 1-2 count. Westerman and Hilario DeLaPaz then followed with singles to load the bases with no outs. Aidan Grabowski, Ty Hatfield, and Cady all had RBI singles in the inning while Brayden Clark recorded a two-run single. The hits by Cady and Clark came with two outs in the inning.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth when the Falcons were able to push across the game-winning run. Brandon Swope walked the leadoff batter and he came around to score following a sacrifice bunt and fielder's choice.
Cady, Deitschel, and Westerman were retired in the order in the ninth. Following the big sixth inning offensively, the Dragons only had one batter reach safely for the remainder of the game and it was a one-out double by Hatfield in the eighth.
Swope ended up taking the loss on the mound, pitching 2.0 innings and allowing two hits with one run, two walks, and one strikeout. Of the five TU pitchers in the game, Jacob Soha was the only one not to allow a run despite walking two batters.
Hatfield had three hits to lead the way offensively and had one RBI. Cady and Andrew Fairbrother both had two hits.
