Tiffing Dragons earn a split in double header
While you might think this past weekend as a 100% basketball weekend for me, I actually watched more softball than basketball if you were to fully break it down. My niece who is still in high school traveled with her varsity team to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to play a handful of exhibition games over Spring Break.
On Thursday they had an 8 to 5 win over the Bentworth Varsity Bearcats. Then, on Friday, they snagged an 8 to 1 win over the Berwick Varsity Bulldogs. Finally, on Saturday they played the Bearcats again but fell 2-6 and on Sunday they also played the West Allegheny Varsity Indians and lost to them 9 to 11.
Personally, my niece actually had some really good games. If you asked her, she probably didn't hit as well as she might have liked, but she had some really amazing defensive plays. She got defensive player of the year on her basketball team this year, so I texted her and asked if she was going for a two sport defensive player of the year.
On Sunday, @mrsbozz and I drove the three hours down to Tiffin, OH so we could watch our niece play with the Tiffin Dragons softball team against the University of Findlay team. Findlay is just down the road from Tiffin (maybe a half hour away), so there is a pretty healthy rivalry between the two teams.
This was our first time ever visiting the Paradisio Athletic Complex on Tiffin's campus and it is actually a quite beautiful space. It's amazing what a difference a bit of money can make when you move from the high school level up to the university level!
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, it was cold. Don't let the sunny day fool you, if you look really closely, you can see the flag in left field standing straight out from the Northeast wind that was blasting us. We had several layers on and we were still freezing by the time both games in the double header were finished.
In the first game, the Tiffin Dragons won 10 to 2 in six innings. Collegiate softball has an eight run rule that they impose to keep games from getting out of hand. If one team is up by more than eight runs at the end of the fifth inning, then the game is over. It was the bottom of the sixth and the Dragons were winning 7 to 2 when they scored three runs to negate the need for a seventh and final inning.
It was a pretty awesome game. Mostly because my niece hit the first home run of her university career. It was a beauty too! The starting pitcher for that game is her good friend and the pitcher's dad went out and got the ball from past the fence so she could keep it to commemorate the occasion.
I'm so glad my wife and I were there to share that special moment with her. It was really awesome.
The second game when the full seven innings and while my niece played in the outfield, she didn't bat in that game. They ended up losing the game 2 to 3 for a split of the double header. Obviously, I am a bit biased, but I don't quite understand why you wouldn't have my niece hitting in the game when she hit the sole home run in the other game.
Clearly she was a little hot, so you would think that might carry over into the next game. Perhaps the coach knows something I don't. That's probably why she gets paid to be a coach and I get to sit in the stands and watch.
Either way, it was a long, cold, wonderful day of softball and being able to see my niece made it absolutely perfect!
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