March 28, 2008
Box Score
DAYTON, Ohio - A critical error with two outs in the seventh inning proved to be the difference as Dayton fell to Rhode Island, 4-1 in the opener of an Atlantic 10 baseball series at Time Warner Cable Stadium on Friday afternoon. The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Flyers (13-8, 1-3 A-10) and gives the Rams (8-13, 1-3 A-10) their first conference victory of the season.
Dayton was out hit 11-8 on the day and was hampered by two errors including a mistake in the seventh inning that allowed the winning run to score from third with two outs when Rhode Island attempted to steal second base in the seventh inning.
The miscue erased a stellar start by junior lefthander Quinn Haselhorst who allowed just one run on seven hits over 6.0 innings pitched. He struck out two and walked none but was held to a no decision for the second consecutive start.
Senior Lucas Farden fell to 2-3 on the mound this season for UD after allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits over 3.0 innings pitched.
Marshall MacDonald and Cole Tyrell had two hits each for the Flyers, which were held to two runs or less for the third time in four conference games. MacDonald was 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI while Tyrell went 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
Jacob Spaeth doubled and laid down a sacrifice bunt while also scoring Dayton lone run of the day. He was joined on the offensive side by singles from Scott Dunwoody, Max Navalinski and Ryan Nevill.
Rhode Island got on the board first in the top of the third inning with a one-out RBI single to right field for a 1-0 lead.
Dayton came back with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame when Jacob Spaeth doubled to right field with one out and was sent home on a two-out double into the left centerfield gap by Marshall MacDonald.
The game remained tied for the next few innings but took a strange turn beginning in the sixth inning. With two outs in the top of the sixth inning, Rhode Island tried to steal second base but the inning ended when Rob Deveney was called for batter's interference when he prevented Dayton catcher Scott Dunwoody from making a throw on the play. Then to begin the seventh inning, Deveney stepped to the plate again and hit a single into centerfield, but was called out as URI batted out of order. The proper batter, Shaun Hagey was credited with the out and then grounded out to shortstop for two outs to begin the seventh inning.
After the confusion settled, URI kept the inning going on back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Then the Rams attempted to steal second base and the Flyers intended to surrender the base, but the throw back to the pitcher ended up in centerfield and allowed Rhode Island to score the go-ahead run to take a 2-1 lead.
The Rams added two more runs behind a pair of walks, a sacrifice fly and a RBI single in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach for the Flyers, 4-1.
Dayton and Rhode Island will resume the series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. ET contest that can be followed with Gametracker at www.DaytonFlyers.com.
