Tiffin University baseball (10-16, 5-5 G-MAC) started the four-game series at Kentucky Wesleyan with a 6-4 win in game one but suffered their second walk off loss of the week as the Panthers won game two 1-0.
Game 1:
The Dragons started strong scoring two in their first at bat of the game, getting to KWC's Evan Oakley, who is one of the top pitchers in the G-MAC and who has already been named the G-MAC Baseball South Division Pitcher of the Week three times this season.
Griff Cady led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Brayden Clark, and Clark scored on an RBI single by Jayden Leach. With runners at first and third with one out, TU was unable to push across anymore.
Leading 2-1 in the fifth, the Dragons plated four to blow the game open a bit. Cady again sparked the rally, this time leading off with a single. Cady scored on an RBI groundout by Michael Patellis, and the final three runs would be scored with two outs. Leach provided another RBI single, this time scoring Dylan Ruhe and Jovanny Skrelja provided a two-run home run.
The Panthers put together a big rally in the seventh scoring three runs off reliever Dylan Kaiser, but Andrew Baileys came in and induced a huge inning-ending double play to prevent any further damage.
The Dragons looked to add some insurance in the ninth and loaded the bases with no outs but could not push any runs across. Baileys finished the game on the mound recording a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to take game one.
Brandon Swope started and earned his first win of the year, throwing 5.0 innings with four strikeouts. Swope walked five and gave up three hits while allowing one unearned run.
Keegan Phillips pitched 1.0 scoreless innings and struck out two. Baileys pitched the final 2.2 innings to earn his first save of the season and struck out two.
Cady, Patellis, and Leach all had multi-hit games.
Game 2:
Starting pitchers Johnathon Ray and Ethan Ell went toe-to-toe with matching zeros all the way into the seventh inning.
In the seventh, the Panthers got a walk, stolen base, and double to earn the win. The Dragons looked to take the lead in the seventh also, but Gavin Marceric was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Ray worked around two on with no outs in the sixth to keep it 0-0. The Dragons had scoring chances in both the second and third innings but came up empty both times. In the third, Julian Hernandez was also thrown out at home trying to score.
Ruhe was the only hitter to record a multi-hit game. Ray dropped to 2-4 on the year, throwing 6.1 innings. Ray struck out five and walked four while allowing one run on three hits.
