Dayton Flyers

DAYTON, Ohio – Dayton clinched the first conference series of the season over St. Bonaventure with a 6-2 win on Sunday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Stadium.

The Flyers have won the eight of the last nine conference series, including three straight against St. Bonaventure. 

Senior right-handed pitcher Tim Bury (1-1) started on the mound for the Flyers and held the Bonnies to two runs in eight innings with four strikeouts, including consecutive 1-2-3 innings to start the game.

“Bury made a big difference today by going deep into the game with a lot of ground-ball outs and fly outs to keep our defense on their toes,” Head Coach Tony Vittorio said.

Even with the Flyer defense on their toes – SBU out-hit UD 11-6 – Dayton turned in an error-less defensive outing for the second time this season.

Senior C.J. Gillman got things started for the Flyer offense with a two-out RBI double in the first inning which gave UD a 1-0 lead. Before Gillman’s at-bat, senior Brian Blasik drew a walk and stole second – one of his two stolen bases on the day – to advance into scoring position. Gillman finished the day 1-for-2 with two RBI. Four of Dayton’s six runs reached base on a walk or hit-by-pitch.

St. Bonaventure would tie the game in the third, but Dayton would not give up the lead for the remainder of the game. Catcher Josh Jeffery drew a walk to lead off the third inning and eventually scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly hit by Bobby Glover, putting UD on top 2-1.

Jeffery also drove in a run in the fourth inning and the Flyers added three insurance runs in the seventh.

Junior leadoff hitter Ian Hundley went 2-for-5 at the plate with one run scored.

The Bonnies’ starter Cael Johnson (1-2) threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed six runs – three unearned – to receive the loss.

Before hosting Saint Louis next weekend in conference play, the Flyers will host a pair of mid-week games at Time Warner Cable Stadium – a rematch with Ball State on Tuesday and Cincinnati on Wednesday. Both games are at 3 p.m. ET.