There were plenty of crooked numbers on Ashland University's half of the linescore on Tuesday (March 30) at Tiffin, and the main reason for that was junior shortstop
Austin Eifrid.
In the Eagles' 21-8 win at the Dragons, Eifrid was 5-for-7 with two doubles, two home runs, eight RBIs and four runs scored. He fell one hit (six, set by three players) and one RBI (nine, set by
Casey Jirsa in 2007) shy of single-game program records.
Eifrid had just three career homers in two full seasons, a COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season in 2020 and the start of 2021 at Ashland (5-6) prior to Tuesday.
The other big producer in the Eagles' 21-run, 19-hit attack was junior center fielder
Alex Whipple, who was 5-for-6 with two doubles and scored five times.
Senior right fielder
Michael Rogers hit a two-run home run in the top of the second inning, but the Dragons countered with two runs in the bottom of the second. Eifrid's solo round-tripper put AU ahead 3-2 in the top of the third, but Tiffin (10-5) came back with single runs in the bottom of the third and fourth to lead for the first time at 4-3.
Ashland's four-run top of the fifth, however, put the Eagles back on top at 7-4. Three straight Dragon errors resulted in the first two AU runs of the inning, then junior second baseman
Tim Zeller drove in a run with a single, and the final run of the frame came home on a wild pitch.
The Eagles continued to pull away from their future Great Midwest Athletic Conference rivals in the top of the sixth, as senior third baseman
Garett Robberts hit a three-run homer to make the score 10-4. That was the start of an eight-run sixth, which also featured a two-run double by junior catcher
Mike Flemming and a bases-clearing double from Eifrid.
Tiffin scored in the sixth to put the score at 15-5, then Zeller added an RBI single in the seventh for a 16-5 advantage. After the Dragons scored twice in the seventh and once in the eighth to edge closer at 16-8, Ashland finished off the win in the ninth with a five-spot – an RBI single from junior pinch-hitter
Logan Stoldt, and an Eifrid grand slam.
Six Eagles took to the mound on Tuesday, and junior right-hander
Josh Stover got the win in relief. Stover (1-2) allowed four hits, two runs and a walk and struck out one in two innings.
Ashland will play host to its first four Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games of the season on Friday (April 2) and Saturday (April 3) vs. Wayne State (7-4) at Donges Field.
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