DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team will head to St. Bonaventure to take on the Bonnies in a three-game series starting on Friday at 3 p.m. at Fred Handler Park. The Flyers will return on Saturday for a 12 p.m. game and finish the series on Sunday at noon.
 
All three games will have live stats as well as live video streams with an ESPN+ subscription.
 
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
The Flyers will enter the weekend 18-22 after dropping all three games in a series against VCU. Dayton was in all three contests, starting with Friday. The game was tied 0-0 until a six-run inning for VCU turned into a 7-0 loss in game one at Day Air Ballpark. On Saturday, Dayton held a 4-0 lead entering the seventh inning, but six unanswered runs to end the game made it a 6-4 loss. In Sunday's finale, the Flyers scored eight runs in the bottom of the ninth, coming up just short in a 9-8 loss to the Rams.
 
Dayton currently sits in a tie for ninth in the Atlantic 10 alongside Richmond and Fordham at 6-9. The top seven teams make the Atlantic 10 Championship at Davidson at the end of May, and the Flyers have three series remaining against the Bonnies, Richmond, and Saint Louis.
 
Offensively, graduate student Henry Strmecki leads the Flyers with a .293 batting average in 33 games. Strmecki is tied for second on the team with eight home runs and tied for third with 23 RBIs while stealing seven bases on nine attempts.
 
Senior Marcos Pujols leads the way with eight home runs and ranks second with 28 RBIs while hitting .277. Pujols is one of just two Flyers to play in every game this season, along with senior Jay Curtis. Curtis and his 29 RBIs lead Dayton and he has started all 40 games this season, playing a combination of catcher, third base, and designated hitter.
 
Dayton's pitching staff has been led this season by the combination of juniors Ryan Steinhauer and Mark Manfredi at the front of the rotation. Steinhauer leads the team and ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10 with 62 strikeouts in 52.1 innings this season. The lefty is holding opposing hitters to a .202 batting average and has four quality starts this season, including a complete game.
 
Manfredi leads all starters with a 3.64 ERA and leads the team with a 1.02 WHIP in seven starts this season. He ranks second with 55 strikeouts in 47 innings and is holding opposing hitters to a .206 average.
 
The pitching staff as a whole has 359 strikeouts this season, which is already the eighth most in program history. They are 12 punchouts away from cracking the top five in the history of Dayton baseball, as the 2009 team currently ranks fifth all-time with 370.
 
SCOUTING THE BONNIES
St. Bonaventure enters the weekend 3-31 and 1-14 in conference play after getting swept by Richmond over the weekend. The Bonnies did win their midweek game on Tuesday evening, defeating Niagara 12-2.
 
The Bonnies were picked to finish twelfth in the Atlantic 10, behind Massachusetts, who the Flyers swept two weeks ago.
 
B.J. Salerno was appointed as interim head coach of St. Bonaventure in October 2021 after spending the last eight season as an assistant coach. Salerno is coaching his alma mater after graduating from SBU in 2009.
 
Jackson DeJohn leads the Bonnies with a .291 batting average in 30 games this season. His eight doubles also lead the team, as does his .383 on-base percentage. Danny Manion and Matthew Williams have each driven in 17 runs this season to lead St. Bonaventure. Manion has added a team-high three home runs, while Williams is the only member of the team to start all 34 games.
 
Tripp Breen and Liam Devine both lead the team with 40 strikeouts this season. In eight starts this season, Breen is 1-5 with a 7.23 ERA in 42.1 innings, while Devine has one save in 48.2 innings this season. The Bonnies feature four pitchers to start at least seven games, with Kyle Caringi and Bryce Hediger the others for St. Bonaventure.
 
MATCHUP HISTORY
These will mark the 38^th, 39^th, and 40^th games between these two schools since 2005, with Dayton holding a slight 19-18 lead over the Bonnies during that span. It will mark the first meeting since 2019, when the Flyers swept the Bonnies in New York. In the finale on April 7, 2019, Pujols went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in an 8-7 victory over Saint Bonaventure.