The Tiffin University baseball team (14-25, 9-13 G-MAC) could not get the offense going and dropped two games at Ashland on Friday to start the series, falling 3-2 in game one and 6-1 in game two.
Game 1:
The Dragons jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first. With two outs, Jayden Leach was hit by a pitch and then scored on an RBI double by Adam Deitschel. TU starter Brandon Swope had to work around a lot of traffic in his 4.2 innings of work, and Ashland pushed one across in the fifth to tie the game.
Tiffin regained the lead in the eighth for a 2-1 advantage. With two outs, Dylan Ruhe and Weston Thompson drew back-to-back two-out walks and Ruhe scored on an RBI single by Luke Westerman, but the inning ended as Thompson was thrown out at third on the play.
With two outs and runners on second and third in the bottom of the eighth, Brett Madison could not escape and gave up a single which gave Ashland a 3-2 lead.
In the ninth, the Dragons got the tying run on base, but Brayden Clark was stranded at first to end the game following back-to-back strikeouts by Michael Patellis and Deitschel.
Madison dropped to 0-3 on the year and threw 3.0 innings of relief. Madison gave up two runs on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Swope struck out seven and allowed one run on two hits with four walks in 4.2 innings.
Jovanny Skrelja had the only other hit for the Dragons in the game.
Game 2:
The Dragons had to play from behind as Ashland led 3-0 after two innings. TU's only run of the game came in the third inning when Skrelja scored on an RBI double by Clark.
AU answered Tiffin's run in the third and added two more in the sixth.
The Dragons had at least one base runner in six of the seven. The best scoring chance came in the fifth when the Dragons had two on with one out with the tying run at the plate.
The Dragons had a difficult time putting the ball in play, recording 10 strikeouts in each game for 20 total across 16 innings.
Skrelja recorded a multi-hit game, going 2 for 3.
Johnathon Ray started and took the loss, dropping to 3-6 on the year. Ray threw 5.2 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits with three walks and one strikeout.