DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team took the series opener from Richmond 7-2 on Friday night at Day Air Ballpark, home of the Dayton Dragons. The Flyers hit four home runs and got eight innings and 10 strikeouts from graduate student Kenny Serwa in the win.
 
The Flyers got home runs from graduate student Henry Strmecki, senior Jake Silverstein, and juniors Jose Martinez and Alex Neff with six of Dayton's seven runs coming via the big fly. Freshman Matt Maloney added a pair of hits as well for UD in the win.
 
With the win, Dayton improves to 21-24, 8-11 in Atlantic 10 play, while Richmond falls to 23-22, also 8-11 against conference opponents.
 
ON THE MOUND
Serwa did not allow his first hit until the seventh inning and made his longest start of the season, going eight strong innings to earn his fourth win of the season, tying for the team lead. He retired 24 of the 31 batters he faced, walking just one Richmond hitter throughout the evening.
 
Graduate student Nick Meyer entered in the ninth inning, closing the game out for the Flyers, capping the night off with a strikeout and solidifying the 7-2 victory.
 
SCORING PLAYS
Top 1: (1-0 Flyers)
The Spiders retired the first two hitters of the inning for Dayton before Strmecki unloaded on a 1-2 pitch, sending it over the left field fence for his ninth home run of the season and giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
 
Top 2: (4-0 Flyers)
The Flyers continued the momentum in the second inning. Senior Jay Curtis led off the inning with an infield single and Martinez came up and followed Strmecki with a home run to left field himself, his seventh of the season putting Dayton up three. Maloney followed with a base hit to left center. The freshman catcher would advance to third on a throwing error on a pickoff move and would score on an RBI single from junior Omar Daniels to put Dayton up 4-0.
 
Bottom 4: (6-0 Flyers)
Martinez led off the fourth with a walk and stole second. Two batters later, Silverstein became the third Dayton player to hit one over the left field wall, his second home run of the season giving the Flyers a 6-0 lead after four innings at Day Air.
 
Top 7: (6-2 Flyers)
Richmond led off the inning with their first base hit of the game despite the diving effort from junior Keagan Calero at second. A walk put two on before Serwa retired the next two hitters. Back-to-back two out hits by the Spiders plated two runs to cut the lead to four.
 
Bottom 8: (7-2 Flyers)
Neff finalized the scoring for the Flyers in the eighth, hitting a 3-2 pitch over the right-center field fence for his fifth home run of the season, giving Dayton their seventh run of the game and adding an insurance run heading into the final inning, where Meyer shut the door solidifying the win for UD.
 
UP NEXT
The Flyers will return to Woerner Field at AES Ohio Stadium on Saturday for the second game of a three-game series against Richmond. It will also be Senior Day for the Flyers, with the contest slated for a 1 p.m. start.