DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team will play in a condensed series this weekend at Evansville. The Flyers will still play three games against the Purple Aces, but instead of playing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the series will only take place on Saturday and Sunday, with one game Saturday and a doubleheader Sunday.
 
All three games will feature live stats that fans can follow throughout the weekend.
 
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
The Flyers opened the 2022 season last weekend at North Carolina A&T, winning all three contests to start the season 3-0. Dayton did not trail in either of the first two games, winning 8-4 and 9-7 on Friday and Saturday, before coming from behind to win on Sunday with freshman Matthew Maloney picking up the go-ahead pinch hit RBI single to lift Dayton to a 4-3 win.
 
Juniors Ben Jones and Keagan Calero paced the offense for the Flyers. Jones drove in a team-leading five runs against the Aggies and also leads the team with a .500 batting average through the first three games.
 
Calero went 4-for-10 in the opening weekend, picking up a pair of doubles and drawing a team-high four walks to go alongside a team-leading four runs scored. Graduate student Henry Strmecki hit the first home run of 2022 for the Flyers on Friday, while seniors Jay Curtis and Alex Neff each picked up two stolen bases to pace Dayton.
 
Senior Bryce Hellgeth pitched 4.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen while allowing just two hits and striking out three. He finished the game on Friday and picked up the win on Sunday. All three starters went at least four innings, with graduate student Kenny Serwa, junior Ryan Steinhauer, and redshirt freshman Chris Peguero each making their debuts in the contest. All three also gave up three runs or fewer as well.
 
SCOUTING THE PURPLE ACES
Evansville opened the season this past weekend, but has already played two Top 25 opponents so far this season. The Purple Aces are 0-4 this season, but those four losses have come against NC State and Vanderbilt. NC State made it to the College World Series and Vanderbilt made the College World Series Championship before falling to Mississippi State.
 
The Purple Aces were picked to finish seventh in the eight-team Missouri Valley Conference after a 28-27 finish in 2021. Evansville was picked to finish ahead of Valparaiso by the league's coaches.
 
Wes Carroll coaches the Purple Aces and is entering his 14^th season as head baseball coach after playing for Evansville himself. Entering the season he was 320-363 as a head coach and won the 2014 MVC Regular Season Championship.
 
Offensively, Brent Widder leads the team with a .267 batting average and four hits through the first four games of the season. Entering the season, Tanner Craig was named to the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List for the second straight season. In 54 games last year, Craig hit .299 with 12 home runs and 47 RBIs. Danny Borgstrom also returns for the Purple Aces after making 43 starts and hitting nine home runs.
 
Shane Gray headlines the pitching staff and was named to the 2022 MVC Preseason Team after starting 15 games for the Purple Aces last season. Gray is projected to start Saturday's contest and went 6-4 last year with a 2.84 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 88 innings. Nick Smith allowed just two runs in his start against NC State, lasting 4.1 innings on the mound after pitching just seven innings during his freshman season. Shane Harris is the third projected starter for Evansville, pitching three innings in his first start against the Wolfpack.
 
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Game 1 – Kenny Serwa (1-0, 5.40 ERA) vs. Shane Gray (0-1, 22.50 ERA)
Game 2 – Ryan Steinhauer (0-0, 2.25 ERA) vs. Nick Smith (0-1, 4.15 ERA)
Game 3 – Chris Peguero (0-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. Shane Harris (0-1, 12.00 ERA)
 
MATCHUP HISTORY
These will be the fifth, sixth, and seventh games between these two schools, with Dayton owning a 3-1 series lead against Evansville. The Flyers have won the last three contests, with the most recent game seeing Dayton win 6-3 at a neutral site on February 17, 2018.