March 17, 2005

Box Score |  Photo Gallery

DAYTON - The University of Dayton baseball team opened Time Warner Cable Stadium with an 8-1 win over Marshall in non-conference action on Thursday.

UD (10-5) has won five straight games while Marshall fell to 2-11 on the year with its fourth consecutive loss.

The Flyers pounded out 11 hits on the day to support solid defensive and pitching efforts. Bobby Getty had a team-best three hits including an inside-the-park home run in the sixth inning. He also scored three times and had a succesful sacrifice bunt.

William Benoit and Roberto Ramos added two hits apiece for the Flyers. Benoit has now hit safely in 13 of 15 games this season after a 2-for-4 performance which included a double, run scored and an RBI. Ramos was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. He now leads the team in batting with a .391 average and a .481 on base percentage.

Sophomore Michael Massa hit his first home run of the season, a solo blast in the fourth, as part of a 1-for-3 day which included two runs scored.

Redshirt Sophomore Joe McSoley increased his team-leading RBI total to 21 with two on Thursday. He was 1-for-5 with a double and a run scored.

Junior Craig Stammen improved to 3-2 on the year and has won his last two starts. He struck out two and surrendered just one run on three hits over 6.0 innings pitched.

Stammen was relieved by Drew Chesebro and Craig Rohren. The duo combined for three innings of scoreless relief. Chesebro gave up two hits with one strikeout while Rohren pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.

Dayton jumped on the board with two runs in the first. Massa walked and scored on a passed ball and then Schumm came home on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Godzik to put the Flyers ahead 2-0.

UD gave one back in the second as the Thundering Herd scored on a sacrifice fly to left, but the Flyers added three runs in the third to put the game out of reach for MU.

Getty led off the third with a single and then scored on a double to left center by McSoley. Benoit then drove home McSoley with another RBI double to left center. Finally, Ramos singled up the middle to send home Benoit and put Dayton ahead 5-1.

A solo homer by Massa and an RBI groundout by McSoley in the fourth pushed the Flyer lead to 7-1 before Getty smacked an inside-the-park home run off the centerfield wall to end the scoring with UD ahead 8-1.

Dayton heads back out on the road this weekend for three games in four days in Birmingham, AL. UD begins the stretch with a 2 pm Eastern Time (1 pm Local) game at Samford on Sunday.