DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team won the series opener against Kent State 14-2 at Woerner Field on Friday afternoon.
 
Senior Hunter Wolfe went eight innings on the mound to earn his second win of the season, allowing just two runs on seven hits while striking out nine. It marked the fourth-consecutive start where the reigning Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week went at least six innings and struck out at least eight.
 
Graduate student Alex Brickman homered for the third-straight game and graduate student Eddie Pursinger hit a grand slam to pace the offense for the Flyers. That pair combined for nine RBIs in the win. Senior Mitchell Garrity moved closer to the program record for hit by pitches, getting plunked once in the game and bringing his career total up to 46, just two off the record of 48 set by Cole Tyrell from 2007-2010. Senior Michael Cleary was hit by two pitches, moving him into a tie for third all-time with Jeff Bourassa, who was hit by 41 pitches from 2000-2003. As a team, Dayton was hit by nine pitches in the contest.
 
ON THE MOUND
Wolfe put in his longest outing of the season with his eight innings. In his last four starts, the senior has allowed just three runs in 27 innings with 40 strikeouts. His 46 strikeouts this season puts him just eight behind Charlie Dant's 179 in Wolfe's career for tenth in program history.
 
The lefty was relieved by freshman Parker Bard, who pitched the last inning, giving up just one hit in a scoreless ninth.
 
SCORING PLAYS
Bottom 1: (5-0 Flyers)
Senior Mariano Ricciardi opened the game by reaching on an error. Junior Benjamin Blackwell was hit by a pitch and junior Marcos Pujols hit a single off the left field fence to load the bases. Brickman drove in the first run of the game getting hit by a pitch before Pursinger cleared the bases with his fourth home run of the season to give Dayton an early 5-0 lead.
 
Bottom 4: (9-0 Flyers)
Pujols and senior Riley Tirotta were hit by pitches to put two on before Brickman's team-leading sixth home run of the season made it 8-0 Dayton. Pursinger would reach on a dropped third strike before stealing second and third base. A single to center field by junior Jay Curtis brought him home and extended the UD lead to nine.
 
Top 5: (9-1 Flyers)
After retiring the leadoff hitter, Wolfe allowed a home run to left field, making it a 9-1 Dayton lead.
 
Bottom 5: (11-1 Flyers)
Back-to-back walks from Ricciardi and Blackwell to open the inning were followed with an RBI single by Pujols to make it 10-1. After Tirotta moved Blackwell to third with a fly out to center field, Pursinger brought him home with a single to right field giving the Flyers a double-digit lead.
 
Top 6: (11-2 Flyers)
Another one-out solo home run off of Wolfe cut the Dayton lead back to single digits.
 
Bottom 6: (14-2 Flyers)
Curtis walked to lead off the game before senior Michael Cleary and Ricciardi were hit by a pitch to load the bases. Blackwell's sacrifice fly to right field scored Curtis from third and after another hit by pitch to Pujols, Tirotta brought two more runs home with an RBI double to center field to give the game its 14-2 final score
 
UP NEXT
The Flyers will return to Woerner Field on Saturday to take on Kent State for the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.