May 2, 2008

Box Score

AMHERST, MA - Visiting Dayton took another important step towards the Atlantic 10 baseball postseason with an 8-2 victory at Massachusetts in the opener of a three-game series on Friday afternoon.

The Flyers (27-18, 10-9 A-10) picked up an important conference victory as the top two teams entering the afternoon in the Atlantic 10 both lost to put UD just three games back of a first-place tie between Xavier and Duquesne as well as two games shy of third place Charlotte. Temple also began the day in fourth place, but lost its series opener to now stand just one-game in front of Dayton, which has won eight of its last nine games in A-10 action.

UD did most of its damage in a seven-run seventh inning that saw 11 batters head to the plate to take advantage of five hits, one walk and one hit by pitch. Overall, four Flyers had multi-hit performances overall on the afternoon as Dayton out hit Massachusetts, 11-6.

Cole Tyrell was 2-for-3 with a double, walk, hit by pitch, two runs scored and one RBI to pace the Flyers.

Myles Swartzel doubled and drove in one run while Scott Dunwoody and Max Navalinski each singled twice and scored one run apiece for Dayton.

The duo of Kevin Miller and Marshall MacDonald collected two RBI each as UD had at least one base runner in six of the nine innings played.

Senior Lucas Farden took advantage of the offensive support to post his second complete-game victory in the last three weeks. He struck out five and allowed just two runs on six hits and two walks while improving to 4-6 overall on the season.

Dayton started its offense in the second inning with a one walk by Cole Tyrell. Max Navalinski followed with a single through the left side and the pair both moved into scoring position on a balk by the UMass pitcher. Jacob Spaeth followed with an RBI ground ball to the first baseman that was soft enough to allow Tyrell to score from third and give UD a 1-0 lead.

The Flyers gave themselves a big advantage with a rally in the seventh inning. Cole Tyrell and Max Navalinski started things again with back-to-back singles through the Minutemen infield. Then Jacob Spaeth ended a nine-pitch at-bat by drawing a walk to load the bases for Kevin Miller who hit a two-RBI single down the left field line. Scott Dunwoody was hit by the next pitch to load the bases again for Dayton with no outs. Marshall MacDonald hit a groundball to the shortstop that was mishandled and allowed two more Flyer runs to score. Dunwoody advanced to third on the play and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Myles Swartzel. Jake Hoover followed with a RBI double to left center that plated MacDonald and Tyrell came to the plate again to send in an additional run on a RBI double of his own to left field as UD went on top, 8-0.

UMass attempted to make a late rally with two runs on three hits in the eighth inning, but UD catcher Scott Dunwoody threw out a Minuteman runner attempting to steal second base to end the threat and preserve a, 8-2 Flyer victory.

Dayton and Massachusetts will resume their Atlantic 10 baseball series Saturday with a nine-inning game beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can follow the action with Gametracker at www.DaytonFlyers.com.