DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team held its 2019 home opener at Woerner Field at DP&L Stadium on Thursday afternoon, and the Flyers defeated Purdue Fort Wayne by a score of 9-3. Dayton improves its record to 2-6-1 with the win, while the loss was the seventh straight for the Mastodons, who fall to 4-7 on the year.

KEY MOMENTS

• Purdue Fort Wayne got on the scoreboard first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, but a five-run bottom of the second from Dayton allowed the Flyers to take charge early. Connor Echols (reached on error), Michael Cleary (HBP), and Riley Tirotta (walk) all reached to open the frame to load the bases with no outs. Connor Wilson walked on the next at-bat to force in a run and Benjamin Blackwell delivered a bases-clearing triple to put Dayton ahead for good. Jay Curtis hit a sac fly to center to drive in Blackwell from third to close out scoring for the inning.
• RJ Wagner came into the game in the fourth inning with a 5-2 lead and completely shut down the Mastodon bats for the next five innings. Wagner finished with a line of 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 6 K, 0 BB, which was enough to earn the decision.

SCORING SUMMARY
Top 2nd: Purdue Fort Wayne 1, Dayton 0
Robert Young III singled to open the inning and advanced to second on a hit by pitch. A double steal placed both runners in scoring position and Young scored on a wild pitch.
 
Bottom 2nd: Dayton 5, Purdue Fort Wayne 1
Connor Echols (reached on error), Michael Cleary (HBP), and Riley Tirotta (walk) all reached to open the frame to load the bases with no outs. Connor Wilson walked on the next at-bat to force in a run and Benjamin Blackwell delivered a bases-clearing triple to put Dayton ahead for good. Jay Curtis hit a sac fly to center to drive in Blackwell from third to close out scoring for the inning.
 
Top 3rd: Dayton 5, Purdue Fort Wayne 2
For the second straight inning, Purdue Fort Wayne opened the inning with a single, this time from Garrett Mohler. Mohler was able to move up to second by tagging up on a deep fly ball to left, and then over to third on a ground out to the right side. He scored on a wild pitch with two outs.
 
Bottom 5th: Dayton 6, Purdue Fort Wayne 2
Echols singled to left and Tirotta was hit by a pitch to put a pair on base, then Cleary sac bunted them both into scoring position. Marcos Pujols pinched hit for Connor Wilson in the No. 8 hole and picked up an RBI with a sac fly to drive in Echols.
 
Bottom 6th: Dayton 8, Purdue Fort Wayne 2
Mitchell Garrity drew a walk to open the inning, then stole second base and advanced to third on an errant throw down to second before scoring on a wild pitch on ball four to Alex Brickman, who took second on the play. Two straight walks loaded the bases, then Brickman came home on a sac fly from Tirotta.
 
Bottom 8th: Dayton 9, Purdue Fort Wayne 2
Alex Brickman hit his team-best third home run to kick off the bottom of the eighth.
 
Top 9th: Dayton 9, Purdue Fort Wayne 3
With no one on and two outs, Dylan Stewart hit a double to the gap, then Aaron Chapman's outfield single drove in Stewart for the final run of the game.
 
UP NEXT
Dayton will play at home against Ohio on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader against Canisius on Saturday beginning at noon. The busy four-day stretch for the Flyers will conclude on Sunday with a cross-town trip to Wright State to take on the Raiders at 3 p.m. (ET).