TIFFIN, Ohio - The Panther baseball team is heading down the stretch and began a pivotal four-game series with a 14-4 win at Tiffin on Friday. The team improved to 20-15 overall and are now 10-7 in the GLIAC. Davenport is in sole possession of third place, one game behind Ashland.

Justin Palmbos threw a career-high eight innings and improved to 4-3 on the mound for the Panthers. He scattered nine hits and allowed just one earned run. Palmbos struck out just one batter and induced six flyouts and 15 groundouts. Max Dakin lasted just two innings for the Dragons in his start. He allowed seven hits and six earned runs with three strikeouts.

Davenport scored four runs in the top of the first highlighted by a two-run triple by Jacob Buchberger and a two-run home run by Brian Sobieski, his 11th of the season. Tiffin came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Ryan Thomas had a two-run single and Jack Dennis drove in another run on a fielder's choice.

The Panthers got two of those runs back in the top of the second courtesy of Austin Petravicius who had a RBI double and Nolan Bryant who followed with a RBI grounder. Davenport increased their lead to 7-3 in the top of the fourth. Andrew Figueroa led off the inning with his first home run of the season and his career (167 at-bats).

The Panthers finished the last four innings by scoring in each frame. They had a run in the sixth, two in the seventh, three in the eighth and one more in the ninth. Tiffin used four different hurlers after Dakin exited. Aaron George gave up the three runs in the eighth. Zac Wilson had a two-run triple down the right field line and Buchberger reached on an error during the next at-bat as Wilson scored.

Sam Traver breezed through the ninth with a 10-run lead as he got a fly out to center and struck out the final two hitters. The first five hitters in the lineup for DU went a combined 13-for-25 at the plate and drove in nine runs and scored eight. Sobieski went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI while also getting hit by a pitch. Bryant finished with a team-high four hits in six at-bats and tied his career high in hits. Oscar Heredia also had a pinch-hit home run to lead off the ninth, his first long ball of the season.

The two teams will continue their series with a doubleheader tomorrow at 1 p.m.