Tiffin University baseball, the number eight seed in the G-MAC Tournament, lost their tournament opener Wednesday night 7-3 against the top-seeded Northwood Timberwolves.  

The Dragons continued their theme as of late that included scoring first. With two outs in the first inning, Griff Cady singled to bring home one run and an error on the same play led to another run crossing the plate to put TU on top 2-0. Tiffin threatened to score some more in the second and third innings but came up empty as Ty Hatfield and Cal Brazier hit into inning ending double plays.  

Hatfield gave the Dragons their third run with a solo home run in the fifth.  

TU starter Johnathon Ray cruised through the first 6.0 innings as Tiffin still led 3-0. Ray walked the leadoff batter in the seventh which opened the flood gates for the Timberwolves. Northwood scored four in the inning and three of the four came with two outs. NU got a two-run single with two outs off TU reliever Zach Johnson to take a 4-3 lead.  

The Dragons threatened in the eighth inning. Dylan Ruhe led off with a walk, Brazier singled, and Logan Swonger was hit by a pitch with two outs to load the bases. Hilario DeLaPaz who delivered the game-winning hit at Lake Erie over the weekend stepped to the plate but was unable to get the big hit this time as a fielder's choice ended the inning. 

Northwood plated three unearned runs in the eighth inning taking advantage of an error by Luke Westerman.  

Ray (L, 3-5) was credited with the loss in this one throwing 6.2 innings with four strikeouts. He allowed four runs on five hits and walked one.  

Fairbrother and Colin Crisenberry both had two hits.  

The Dragons face Findlay tomorrow at 2:45pm in an elimination game and will need to win two games tomorrow to advance to Friday.