DAYTON, Ohio – The University of Dayton baseball team defeated St. Bonaventure by a score of 7-4 on Friday afternoon behind the pitching of Tyler Jones. Jones struck out a career-high 10 batters on the mound, and pitched 8.2 innings, also a career high. The win improves Dayton's record to 9-24 overall and 3-7 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, while St. Bonaventure falls to 7-21 overall with a 3-8 mark in conference play.
 
KEY MOMENT
Dayton has found themselves facing an early deficit at the beginning of games this season, but the Flyers flipped the script against St. Bonaventure on Friday and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. The scoring began with one out and runners on first and second, as Brantley Johnson hit a would-be routine ground ball to the St. Bonaventure second baseman, but the throw to second to initiate a double play ricocheted off Bailey Montoya's helmet and into the outfield, which was enough to score Michael Cleary from second base. Mitchell Garrity drove home Montoya with an RBI single into right field, and Takahiro Yamada capped off the inning's scoring with a sac fly that plated Johnson.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
Bottom 2nd: (Dayton 3, St. Bonaventure 0)
The scoring began with one out and runners on first and second, as Brantley Johnson hit a would-be routine ground ball to the St. Bonaventure second baseman, but the throw to second to initiate a double play ricocheted off Bailey Montoya's helmet and into the outfield, which was enough to score Michael Cleary from second base. Mitchell Garrity drove home Montoya with an RBI single into right field, and Takahiro Yamada capped off the inning's scoring with a sac fly that plated Johnson.
 
Top 3rd: (Dayton 3, St. Bonaventure 1)
Two singles and a hit batsman to open the third allowed St. Bonaventure load the bases with no outs, but Tyler Jones worked himself out of a jam by inducing a double play and then a flyout to end the inning, while allowing just one run across the plate.
 
Bottom 3rd: (Dayton 5, St. Bonaventure 1)
Brandon Smith opened the bottom half of the frame with a bang, blasting a solo home run off the scoreboard beyond the left field fence. Connor Echols had his first of two base hits on the day to get aboard and advanced to third on a Michael Cleary double. Echols scored off a Bailey Montoya sac fly to deep center field.
 
Top 4th: (Dayton 5, St. Bonaventure 3)
Tyler Jones struck out the first batter of the inning, but four singles for St. Bonaventure in the inning manufactured two runs for the Bonnies and cut Dayton's lead in half.
 
Bottom 5th: (Dayton 7, St. Bonaventure 3)
Connor Echols reached on an error to lead off the inning, while Bailey Montoya was walked and Brantley Johnson was hit by a pitch to load the bases with just one out for the Flyers. Mitchell Garrity drew a bases loaded walk to force home Echols and Takahiro Yamada hit his second sac fly of the day to plate Montoya.
 
Top 9th: (Dayton 7, St. Bonaventure 4)
Tyler Jones set down the first two batters of the inning and came within one out of a complete game, but David Vaccaro picked up a two-out single and stole second, before being driven home by Ben MacDonald, who hit an RBI single into center field. Josh Nixon came in to relieve Jones and shut the door on the game by getting Sam Fuller to line out to right field.
 
 
KEY STATS

• Tyler Jones' 10 strikeouts on the mound were the most by a Dayton pitcher this season.
• Jones set career-high marks in both strikeouts (10) and innings pitched (8.2).
• Jones was effective in pounding the zone, as the sophomore from Bellefontaine, Ohio issued zero walks on the day.
• Josh Nixon relieved Tyler Jones to get the final out of the game and recorded his fourth save of the season, tying him for 10th all-time in career saves for Dayton.
• Nixon's four saves also ties him for sixth in the conference in the category.
• Brandon Smith continued his hot streak at the plate with a solo home run to open the bottom half of the third inning.
• Smith, who now has a team-high seven home runs this season, has hit five homers in Dayton's last seven games.
• Mitchell Garrity and Takahiro Yamada, who batted in the leadoff and No. 2 spots in the lineup, respectively, both had two runs batted in apiece.
• Connor Echols was the only Flyer to record a multi-hit game with two base hits.
• Echols was also one of two players to score a pair of runs for Dayton in the game, the other being Bailey Montoya.

 
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Tyler Jones spoke after the game about his performance and how the team will look to build off its win on Friday going forward:


 
UP NEXT
Dayton has two more games with St. Bonaventure this weekend. Saturday's game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch and is also Dayton's second Youth Baseball Day of the season. Youth baseball players eighth grade and younger will be able to play catch in the Woerner Field outfield after the game.
 
Sunday's game will begin at noon and is Dayton Baseball's "Vs. Cancer" game. The #Flyboys have been raising money for the Vs. Cancer Foundation over the past two weeks and have already fundraised over $3,500, all of which will directly benefit pediatric brain tumor research, both on a local and national level. The Flyers will have a postgame head shaving ceremony involving several players to show support for kids battling cancer.