The Year of the Dragon!
It's fairly safe to say that the GMAC tournament started off well for the Tiffin Dragons yesterday. They had a 2:30 PM game against a number 2 seeded Hillsdale team that has given them fits over the past two years that I have been following them.
It all started last year during my nieces freshman year at Tiffin University. They were supposed to play a couple of games in Michigan closer to our hometown, but those got cancelled. We decided to drive down to Hillsdale College down near Jackson, MI.
It was a long drive down a lot of back roads which I don't usually mind, but in this case it was just annoying. Anyway. Hillsdale is a quite good team (hence the #2 seeding) and they easily swept the Tiffin Dragons.
Something similar happened in early April when Hillsdale made the trip to Tiffin and swept them again 2 to 6 and 0 to 3.
Oddly enough, that 0 to 3 victory by Hillsdale would hold some importance as that is exactly the same score that Tiffin beat Hillsdale by yesterday afternoon.
Last year the GMAC tournament was held in Findlay, OH, but this year they have moved it to Akron and I have to admit, the facilities seem a lot nicer. The camera work and announcing also seem to have been kicked up a notch.
Freshman pitcher Jules King for the Dragons threw an amazing shutout game only allowing three hits and striking out something like 12 batters. It was pretty impressive. Actually quite good considering a few weeks ago it was questionable as to whether she was going to return this season due to an injury.
Hillsdale held their own through much of the game as well, but in the fifth inning, Tiffin scored the first run of the game. After a quick sixth inning, Tiffin opened things up in the seventh inning by hitting two back to back home runs. After that it was just up to King to close things out and hand Hillsdale their first loss of the tournament.
It's a double elimination tournament, so Hillsdale isn't done yet. I think they face Ohio Dominican at 10 AM this morning and then Tiffin in back in action against Cedarville at 12:30 PM. I've got my machine all set up so I can watch the game in my office.
Last year during the tournament veteran pitcher Feldkamp had an absolutely amazing run. I hope she can bring that same energy this year. If she can pair a similar performance with what we saw from King yesterday, Tiffin could go very far in the tournament.
It is the Year of the Dragon after all isn't it?
My other niece who plays softball is back in action tonight with her high school team. It looks like the team they are playing tonight has a 16-5 record which is quite decent, so it could be a close game. I wanted to say good game, but I think that is all relative. Some people like close games because that means it is suspenseful. Whereas I can see liking blowout games if it is your team that is winning. On the other hand, if your team is losing a blowout, it's not fun at all!
Either way, I just looking forward to seeing my nieces have fun and play hard (as their dad would say).
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