Dayton Flyers

DAYTON, Ohio – Dayton won its fourth consecutive conference game after defeating Fordham, 4-3, on Friday evening at Time Warner Cable Stadium.

Senior right-handed pitcher Mike Hauschild pitched eight innings with six strikeouts to improve to 5-1 on the season. Senior right-handed pitcher Burny Mitchem earned his third save in five games after pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning with a strikeout.

“That game was dictated by the way Mike Hauschild pitched and how our defense played,” Head Coach Tony Vittorio said. “We need more offensive production out of the bottom of our lineup, but the way we pitched and played defense today allowed us to pull out another one-run game.”

With four steals on Friday, Dayton eclipsed 100 steals for just the second time and program history and became the first NCAA Division I team to reach 100 steals this season. Robby Sunderman and Kuris Duggan recorded the 100th and 101st steals of the season on a double steal in the sixth inning.

Dayton (16-19, 7-3 A-10) is now 7-2 when Hauschild starts on the mound, including six consecutive wins. It is also the sixth consecutive one-run victory for UD, after losing the first five one-run decisions of the season. Fordham (14-21, 6-4) falls out of a tie for second place in the league standings with Dayton after its third consecutive loss.

Senior C.J. Gillman led the Flyers on a 3-for-3 performance with two hits and one run scored. Freshman A.J. Ryan went 2-for-2 at the plate with two RBI.

Dayton took the go-ahead lead with two runs in the fifth inning – both unearned. With one out and the bases loaded – on a fielding error and two hit batsmen – Gillman sacrifice-flied out to right field, scoring Duggan. Ryan stepped up to the plate with a single up the middle to give Dayton the go-ahead 4-2 lead, scoring pinch runner Spencer Rohr.

Fordham starting pitcher Daniel Munday (2-3) exited the game after Dayton’s go-ahead run was scored receiving the loss. Munday allowed one earned run in 4 2/3 innings with three strikeouts.

Dayton and Fordham resume a three-game series tomorrow at a rescheduled time of 11 a.m. ET, due to avoid impending weather.