March 29, 1999
Dragons take Heidelberg in extras
Tiffin University made a two-out rally in the bottom of the 10th inning, and Drew Cowburn's double brought home the winning run in an 11-10 win over Heidelberg.
It was the second extra-inning win this weekend for the Dragons (9-10), who went 4-1 this weekend against OAC competition. Heidelberg falls to 2-12.
The game finished a big three days for Cowburn, a freshman catcher, who scored the winning run in the 10th inning against ONU Friday. Cowburn came into the game when starting catcher Joe Behlke tore his ACL, an injury that will keep him out the rest of the season.
Tiffin's Justin Sietz had a pinch-hit home run in the ninth to send the game to extra innings tied at 9-9. Heidelberg took the lead back in the 10th with three straight singles, including one from Doug Abdoo that scored Frank Balogh.
The 'Berg got the first two outs on TU in the bottom of the inning, but Alfredo Oritz and Brian McGee had back-to-back singles, setting the stage for Cowburn's dramatics. McGee scored from first with the winning run.
"It was just a great, back-and-forth baseball game," Tiffin coach Lonny Allen said. "We were pretty fortunate to win this one. Drew came in when Joe got hurt and did a great job blocking the ball behind the plate and then hit a clutch double.
"The crowd was tremendous, and it was about 50/50 between our people and their people. It was a great day for baseball, and for small college baseball on a Sunday it was just a great, great atmosphere.
"We played pretty well. We had a couple of errors that really cost us in the eighth inning, and they scored two runs off those, but we did what we did all weekend; we bounced back and took care of things."
The Dragons hit five home runs, getting bombs from Sietz, Behlke, Ortiz, Beau Parton and Tim McDonald. Parton (double) and McDonald had three hits each. Ortiz had two hits and three runs, and McGee scored twice. Other doubles came from Charlie Parks (run), Kipp Huntsberger (run) and Casey Smith (RBI).
Greg Grime took the loss for Heidelberg, giving up three runs on four hits and striking out one in two innings. Matt Rudolph was the winning pitcher for TU.
Adam Wujnovich had three hits for The 'Berg, including a double and an RBI. Sophomore Jayce Coleman was 2-for-5 with a home runs and four runs batted in, and Doug Abdoo (two singles) drove in two runs. Ben Stocum had a double as one of his two hits.
Both teams are at Walsh for their next games. The Dragons play a doubleheader at Walsh to open up AMC play at 1 p.m. Tuesday and Heidelberg travels to Canton to play the Cavaliers on Friday.