Tiffin University baseball (21-27, 12-18 G-MAC) split a doublehader with Lake Erie on Friday defeating the Storm in game one 12-4 and falling in a heartbreaker 8-7 in game two as the Dragons surrendered a late lead. It was also a long day at the ballpark that lasted well into the night as rain and storms rolled through the area early in the afternoon.
In game one, the Dragons looked to strike first in their first at bat of the game. Ty Hatfield led off with a single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs but Tiffin left the bases loaded. In the second inning, TU stranded two more runners on base.
The game was scoreless after three innings and the game entered a weather delay as rain and storms rolled through the Eastlake area.
After play resumed, TU came out swinging and put two on the board in the fourth. Adam Deitschel and Luke Westerman started the inning with bunt singles and following a sacrifice bunt by Colin Crisenberry, Hatfield brought both runs home with a two-run single.
The Storm tied it at two with two in the fifth and the Dragons scored nine straight to blow it open that included a seven-run seventh inning. Cal Brazier delivered a two-run double in the sixth to give Tiffin the lead in the sixth.
In the seventh, the Dragons scored seven runs on just three hits but one of the hits was a three-run home run by Logan Swonger to make it 11-2. Andrew Fairbrother added a solo home run in the ninth.
Brandon Swope got the start and pitched 4.0 innings with five strikeouts. Dylan Kaiser pitched 1.2 scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts and Mason Brunecz pitched 2.1 innings of relief to get the win striking out four.
Hatfield went 3-for-6 at the plate with two RBI while Brazier and Swonger recorded three RBI each.
Tiffin got off to a good start in game two plating two in the first inning on a two-run double by Brazier. The Storm answered with four in the second to take a 4-2 lead with the big blow being a three-run home run.
Trailing 4-2 with two outs in the fifth, Dylan Ruhe came through with a huge bases clearing double to put the Dragons ahead 5-4. Ruhe doubled home two more in the sixth to make it 7-4 putting Tiffin in good position entering the last two innings.
The Lake Erie offense woke up again in the sixth. A straight steal of home made it 7-6 with two outs and a Johnathon Ray two-out walk proved critical. The Storm put together back-to-back hits to make it 8-7 off TU reliver Zach Johnson.
Two walks gave Tiffin life in the seventh as they put two runners on base. Both were left stranded though as pinch hitter Jack Clancy and Crisenberry were retired to end the game.
Ray started and pitched 5.2 innings with seven strikeouts. He walked four and allowed seven runs on seven hits. Johnson took the loss throwing 0.1 innings allowing one run on two hits.
Ruhe had the big game at the plate going 3-for-5 with 5 RBI and Hatfield walked twice.
Tiffin stranded eight runners on base in game two and left 12 on base in the first game to bring the Friday runners left on base total to 20.
