March 13, 2008

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XENIA, Ohio - Three Flyer pitchers combined to shut down the Penguins and Cole Tyrell added his first home run of the season as Dayton won its seventh straight in a 4-2 victory over Youngstown State on Thursday at Athletes in Action Field.

UD (7-2) is now in the midst of its longest winning streak in the nine-year tenure of Head Coach Tony Vittorio at Dayton. The Flyers also retain the best record of any of the 13 NCAA Division I baseball programs in the State of Ohio.

Junior Quinn Haselhorst struck out two while surrendering just one run to earn the win in his first start of the season. The lefthander allowed just five hits and no walks over 4.0 innings pitched.

Freshman Willy Balbach came on to give up only one run on three hits over the next 2.0 innings pitched and faced the first two batters in the seventh inning before giving way to senior Lucas Farden. Farden picked up his second save of the season with three strikeouts in just 3.0 scoreless innings pitched.

Youngstown State out hit Dayton, 9-7 but the Flyers made the most of their offense with multi-hit performances by Cole Tyrell and Jacob Spaeth.

Tyrell was 2-for-3 with a solo homer in the fourth inning and also walked to reach base three times and stealing a base. Spaeth finished 2-for-4 with a single and a double as well as his fifth stolen base of the season while scoring a run.

Jimmy Roesinger picked up a pair of RBI groundouts while Jake Hoover drove in another run for the Flyers.

Max Navalinski singled and scored a run while stealing a base of his own as UD had three on the day while throwing out YSU in its only stolen base attempt.

The Flyers started the day's scoring in the second inning beginning when Ryan Nevill was hit by a pitch with one out. Cole Tyrell followed with a single through the right side of the infield and UD had runners at the corners with one out. Jimmy Roesinger beat out a would-be double play ground ball to allow Nevill to score from third and give Dayton a 1-0 lead after two innings.

YSU scored its first run on a two-out RBI single, but UD regained the lead in the fourth on a one-out solo home run to left field off the bat for Cole Tyrell to go up, 2-1.

Dayton added to its lead in the sixth inning with another rally that started when Max Navalinski hit a leadoff single through the right side of the infield. After a Penguin pitching change and a strikeout, Navalinski stole second base and Cole Tyrell drew an eight-pitch walk to put two runners on with one out. The pair pulled off a double steal and then Navalinski scored on another RBI ground out by Jimmy Roesinger for a 3-1 advantage.

The Penguins got one run back on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning, but the Flyers regained a two-run lead in the bottom of the frame. After a ground out to begin the inning, Jacob Speath ripped a base hit up the middle and raced to second base for a double. He moved to third base on a deep fly out to right field and then scored on an infield single on a slow rolling ground ball by Jake Hoover down the third base line. The play allowed Dayton to go up 4-2 en route to its seventh consecutive victory.