DAYTON -  The University of Dayton baseball team will open a four-game series on Friday against North Dakota State. The first pitch for Friday's contest is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Woerner Field at AES Ohio Stadium. The Flyers will return on Saturday and Sunday for games starting at 1 p.m. before finishing the series on Tuesday March 16 at 3 p.m.
 
All games will have live stats available for fans to follow along.
 
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
Dayton split a four-game series with Oakland last weekend and enter the series with North Dakota State with a 3-7 record. UD won Friday's contest 10-1, using home runs from graduate student Eddie Pursinger and junior Marcos Pujols and a quality start on the mound from senior Hunter Wolfe to take the home opener. The Flyers fell in both seven-inning contests on Saturday before using a walk-off single from graduate student Alex Brickman to win 7-6 on Sunday to even the series.
 
Pursinger leads UD with a .350 batting average and two home runs offensively in the early part of 2021, while Pujols has driven in a team-leading six RBIs over the first 10 games. Senior Mariano Ricciardi owns a .478 on-base percentage to lead the Flyers while drawing 10 walks, which puts him at second-highest in the Atlantic 10, and tying for the team lead with nine hits.
 
Senior Andrew Zapka has been a staple coming out of Dayton's bullpen, picking up a win while holding opposing hitters to a .136 batting average in seven innings on the mound. Zapka also leads the team among pitchers who have thrown more than five innings with a 1.29 earned run average. Wolfe has struck out 14 hitters so far in 2021 to lead the team.
 
SCOUTING THE BISON
North Dakota State is 7-3 so far in 2021 after splitting last weekend's series against Northern Colorado. The Bison dropped the series opener before splitting in two games on Saturday and taking the series finale on Sunday.
 
NDSU was picked to finish third out of fifth teams in the Summit League Preseason Poll behind Omaha and Oral Roberts but ahead of South Dakota State and Western Illinois. The Bison finished 8-9 in the shortened 2020 season. Bennett Hostetler and Parker Harm were named to the Summit League Preseason Players to Watch list.
 
Jake Malec leads the team offensively in 2021, with a .425 batting average, two triples, and a home run through the team's first 10 games. Hostetler comes in behind him at a .394 batting average and a team-leading .574 on-base percentage and five stolen bases. Peter Brookshaw and Tucker Rohde have been the main run-producers to this point, with the two of them driving in 25 of the team's 70 total runs.
 
On the mound Evan Sankey has been hard to crack for the Bison, with a 2-0 record in two starts, allowing just six hits and no runs, while picking up 19 strikeouts in 11 innings on the mound. Opposing hitters are managing just a .158 batting average against him. Sankey is projected to be Saturday's starter with Friday's starter projected to be Cade Feeney. He and Ben Smith are the only two Bison to have already made three starts in 2021, with Smith projected to be Sunday's starter. That trio is a combined 5-0 for NDSU in 2021.
 
PROBABLE STARTERS
Friday: Hunter Wolfe (1-2, 7.36 ERA) vs. Cade Feeney (1-0, 6.75 ERA)
Saturday: Ben Olson (0-2, 6.75 ERA) vs. Evan Sankey (2-0, 0.00 ERA)
Sunday: Dylan Keller (0-0, 4.05 ERA) vs. Ben Smith (2-0, 4.30 ERA)
Tuesday: Cole Pletka (0-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. TBD
 
MATCHUP HISTORY
This will mark the first ever matchup between these two schools.