BOX SCORE I PLAY-BY-PLAY

RICHMOND, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team smashed a season-high four triples in a 10-5 win over Dayton on Tuesday afternoon in the Colonels’ home finale. EKU finishes the 2011 regular season 16-9 at Turkey Hughes Field.

EKU (21-31), which had only eight triples all season before Tuesday, was led by junior Richie Rodriguez, who finished the day 4-for-5 (his fourth four-hit game of the season) with two RBI, two runs scored, two triples and a bag short of the cycle. Rodriguez came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth needing a home run for the cycle, but instead rocketed an RBI triple into deep center field that travelled an estimated 400 feet.

Junior Dustin Dunlop, who had only one career triple before Tuesday, also connected on a pair of triples in consecutive at-bats, finishing the day 2-for-4 with three RBI. Dunlop is batting .412 (14-for-34) with a team-best 10 RBI over his current nine-game hitting streak.

Freshman right-hander Blake Bottoms (1-1) earned his first collegiate win for EKU, coming on in relief in the third inning and pitching 3.2 innings while allowing just one earned run on three hits and striking out two batters.

Right-hander Bryce Lahrman (2-3) picked up the loss for Dayton (28-24), working two innings and surrendering five runs on three hits.

Brian Blasik paced Dayton offensively in the game, batting 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

After the Flyers jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Colonels finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Dunlop crushed a two-out, two-run triple into right field that scored freshman Bryan Soloman and junior Jacob Daniel and pulled EKU to within one.

The Colonels exploded for five runs to take the lead for good in the home half of the next inning. Freshman Steve Ferraro was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and then scored on a double by senior Bryce Labhart and a throwing error from the outfield that advanced Labhart to third. The next batter, Rodriguez, then laced a double into the gap in left center that scored Labhart, which was followed by a single through the left side by junior #A.J. Jamison# that advanced Rodriguez to third, an RBI ground out by Daniel that scored Rodriguez, a base hit up the middle by sophomore Austin Grisham that scored Jamison and another triple to right field by Dunlop that plated Grisham and made the score 7-3.

Dayton clawed back into the game as Robby Sunderman provided an RBI single in the top of the seventh and Mel Skochdopole lifted a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth that brought the Flyers back to within two, 7-5; however, an RBI single by Labhart, an RBI triple by Rodriguez and an RBI double by Jamison in the bottom of the eighth extended EKU’s lead to five, and senior right-hander Ryne Purcell closed the door on Dayton in the top of the ninth to secure the Colonels’ seventh win in their last nine games.

EKU will close out the regular season this weekend with a three-game series at future Ohio Valley Conference opponent SIU Edwardsville.