The Tiffin University baseball team split on Saturday afternoon, winning game one 3-0 and falling 1-0 in game two.
Luke Fraley took the hill in game one, rolling through five shutout innings, scattering two hits. The Dragon offense scuffled through five innings, collecting only a pair of hits. In the 6th, Tiffin rattled the bats, scoring two runs on three hits. Back to back singles by Garrett Vernau and Kurt Barbeau put runners at first and second. Alec McCurry delivered Vernau to the plate with a single to left field to end the shutout. Barbeau motored home on a wild pitch to give the Dragons a 2-0 lead.
Patrick Bellinger did his job out of the bullpen, tossing a shutout 6th to bring the Dragons back to the plate. Tiffin crossed the plate again in the 7th, scoring on another wild pitch. Isaac Perry doubled to leadoff the inning, and moved 90 feet at a time, with the wild pitch bringing him home. Bellinger took care of business in the 7th, preserving a 3-0 Tiffin win.
Fraley was the winner on the mound, hanging around for five innings before giving way to Bellinger for his second save of the season. At the plate, Kurt Barbeau finished 2 for 4 with a run scored. Isaac Perry concluded game one with a 2 for 3 performance with a run scored.
Game Two
If you're a fan of great pitching, game two was for you. The crafty left hander Tyler Nichols took the mound for the Dragons, and mowed through the Oiler lineup, The one issue that Nichols encountered was the lack of run support. The Dragon offense managed only five hits for the entire game, and had a runner gunned down at the plate in the 2nd inning.
The Tiffin shutout came to an end in the 6th. After allowing a single, Nichols bounced a wild pitch, allowing the runner to move to second. A bouncing ball to the right side of the infield enabled the runner to move to 3rd, and a single right back up the middle gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
Tiffin loaded the bases in the 7th on three Findlay errors, but couldn't score. In the 8th, Tiffin threatened again, but once more had a runner thrown out at the plate on a ball hit to the Oiler shortstop. The Dragons put the tying run in scoring position in the 9th, but like the innings before, it wasn't to be.
Tyler Nichols takes the loss on the mound, tossing 7 2/3 innings of four hit, one run baseball. Tiffin's offense mustered five hits, four walks, but stranded six runners.
The split moves the Dragons to 14-18 overall and 5-9 in GLIAC play.