Box Score DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team won the series opener against George Washington 6-4 on Thursday afternoon at Woerner Field.
 
The Flyers now sit at 19-25 on the season and improve to 9-4 in conference play. UD still needs to win two of the next three against the Colonials to make it into the Atlantic 10 Championships, with anything less giving Dayton a lower winning percentage than George Washington.
 
Senior Mariano Ricciardi went 3-for-5 with three RBIs in the victory. The second baseman has now reached base in 30 straight games and brought his season batting average to .345 in the contest. Junior Marcos Pujols hit his ninth home run of the season and the 57^th of the year for the Flyers offense. With the 2-for-4 performance from Pujols, he extended his hitting streak to a team-leading 12 consecutive games.
 
ON THE MOUND
Senior Hunter Wolfe got the ball to start the game for the Flyers, going 6.1 innings on the mound, giving up four runs and striking out six. Wolfe now has 86 strikeouts on the season, putting him in a tie for fifth on the Dayton program leaderboard with Burny Mitchem, who also struck out 86 hitters in 2010. His 209 career strikeouts put him in 5^th place all-time as well.
 
Junior Bryce Hellgeth earned his first win of the season, entering for Wolfe in the seventh inning and immediately getting an inning-ending double play. Hellgeth would shut down George Washington in the final two frames, not allowing a hit in his 2.2 frames as the Flyers took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh inning.
 
SCORING PLAYS
Top 3: (1-0 Colonials)
Wolfe retired the first two batters of the inning using a strikeout and a pick-off after a walk, but an infield single followed by a walk and another single to right field brought home the first run of the game.
 
Bottom 4: (1-1 Tie)
Pujols tied the game with a no-doubt home run over the right field fence to lead off the fourth inning.
 
Top 5: (4-1 Colonials)
A solo home run led off the fifth inning to give George Washington a one-run lead and a two-out, two-run home run put the Colonials up three.
 
Bottom 5: (4-2 Colonials)
Senior Michael Cleary worked a two-out single into center field and Ricciardi brought home his first run of the game with a double to right center field, scoring Cleary and cutting the lead to two runs.
 
Bottom 7: (5-4 Flyers)
Graduate student Eddie Pursinger hit one of his two singles to left field with one out in the seventh. Junior Jay Curtis walked to put two on and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Senior Mitchell Garrity walked on four pitches to load the bases and a single by Ricciardi scored two runs to tie the game at four. Junior Benjamin Blackwell followed that with an RBI single of his own, bringing Garrity home and giving UD its first lead of the game.
 
Bottom 8: (6-4 Flyers)
Graduate student Chris Cabrera led off the inning with a single to center field and was pinch ran for by junior Jake Silverstein. Silverstein would steal second with two outs and Curtis would bring him home to score with a single to right field, giving the game a final score of 6-4.
 
UP NEXT:
The Flyers will play a doubleheader at Day Air Ballpark, home of the Dayton Dragons on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 and tickets are still available and can be purchased either online or at the ticket window. One ticket gets fans into both games and the cost is eight dollars for adults and five dollars for children. Dayton students get in for free.