Dayton Flyers

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Burny Mitchem pitched six shutout innings with a career-high 14 strikeouts to cap off Dayton’s 13-9 extra-inning win at Tennessee Tech on Saturday night. The senior right-handed pitcher became Dayton’s career strikeout leader with 269, passing Cameron Hobson (2009-11) who had 256. The Flyers lost game one of the doubleheader with the Golden Eagles, 5-2.

Game 2 (Dayton 13, Tennessee Tech 9 – 11 inn.)
Dayton jumped out to an early 6-2 lead in the first four innings behind consistent offensive production and four quality innings from UD’s starter on the mound, Tim Bury. Outside of allowing leadoff homeruns in the first and fourth inning, Bury made the most of his first start of the season with four strikeouts through four innings.

Dayton’s first two runs were unearned in the second inning. Reigning A-10 Rookie of the Week A.J. Ryan led off with a single and Jared Broughton reached on a double. Ryan ended up scoring on a passed ball, and Broughton scored on a sacrifice fly from Mel Skochdopole.

The Flyers doubled three times in the third inning to post two more runs on the board for a 4-1 advantage. The first four batters of the inning reached on a hit – including back-to-back doubles from Brian Blasik and Bobby Glover to leadoff – which forced a TTU pitching change. Glover and Gillman drove in UD’s two runs in the inning.

Two more runs were added in the fourth inning as Dayton loaded the bases to setup a sacrifice fly by Glover, followed by another RBI single from Gillman.

The Golden Eagles stormed back with seven runs in the fifth inning. Sophomore pitcher Tommy Konrad relieved Bury after two batters reached base to lead off the inning. But the Golden Eagles took a 9-6 lead behind seven hits and two UD fielding errors.

Enter Mitchem. In his first relief appearance of the season (after two starts) the senior pitcher took over the game with six consecutive shutout innings and 14 strikeouts, allowing UD time to muster an offensive comeback en route to his first win on the mound this season.

With three strikeouts in his first inning of work (the sixth) Mitchem passed Hobson to become UD’s career strikeout king. The first of the inning tied Hobson’s 256 mark accrued over three seasons. The second, against TTU’s Evan Frazier, put Mitchem all alone at the top. Mitchem finished the inning with three strikeouts – totaling four innings of striking out the side before his night was complete.  

Down to the final out of the game, Dayton tied the game in the ninth inning to force extra innings. With two outs, Ryan singled to right field to keep the Flyers alive. Freshman Spencer Rohr entered as a pinch runner for Ryan, which was followed by a pair of fatal TTU errors. Rohr advanced to second on a wild pitch by Matthew Shepherd with Ian Hundley at the plate. Hundley then reached on an error by the second baseman, which also allowed Rhor to score and tie the game at nine.

After an inning-and-a-half of scoreless baseball, the Flyers poured on four runs in the 11th inning to take the go-ahead lead. Gillman – the eventual deciding run – led off the inning with a single through the right side of the infield. Robby Sunderman – who took Rohr’s spot in the order – reached base on a fielder’s choice sacrifice bunt. The fielder on the play was pitcher Cullen Park, who attempted to throw out the lead runner but misfired third base which allowed Gillman to score and give UD a 10-9 lead.  The Flyers would score four runs on three hits with one error in the 11th.
 
Mitchem came out in the bottom of the 11th to shut the door on the Golden Eagles with three strikeouts after six batters faced to earn the win.

Game 1 (Tennessee Tech 5, Dayton 2)
Junior right-handed pitcher Mike Hauschild threw a complete-game but Dayton lost the first game of the doubleheader, 5-2. Hauschild (1-1) finished with three strikeouts through eight innings pitched.

The Flyers were the first to score but the Golden Eagles’ three-run second inning proved to be the difference.

A.J. Ryan was the catalyst to UD’s offense in the first inning, driving in the first run on a single up the middle. Preceding Ryan’s sixth RBI is as many games played, Bobby Glover and C.J. Gillman both reached base on first-pitch singles up the middle. Glover scored in the inning to give UD a 1-0 lead.

The Golden Eagles scored three runs in the second inning on three hits and two batters hit by a pitch. After TTU’s leadoff batter was retired, the next five Golden Eagles reached base, loading the bases on a double, single and hit-by-pitch.

Gillman hit his first homerun of the season in the sixth inning to cut UD’s deficit to one run. The switch-hitting Gillman pulled a 1-1 count to right field from the lefty batter’s box for Dayton’s second homerun of the season.

Gillman (2-for-4) and Ryan (2-for-3) each had multi-hit games as the Flyers out-hit TTU, 9-8.

The Golden Eagles added two runs in the eight for the final score of 5-2.

Tristan Archer (2-0) started for the Golden Eagles and received credit for the win after 8 2/3, six strikeouts and two earned runs allowed.

Series Finale
Dayton and Tennessee Tech will conclude its three-game series on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.