Box Score I Play-by-Play

DAYTON, Ohio – Junior Austin Grisham batted 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored as the Eastern Kentucky University baseball team continued its hot play on Tuesday, dispatching host Dayton, 10-3, at Woerner Field. The Colonels have now won eight of their last nine games.

EKU (25-20) leads the country in home runs, and the Colonels added to that lead on Tuesday, as Grisham pounded his third home run of the season in the top of the sixth inning and sophomore Bryan Soloman connected on his 11th home run of the season in the top of the first.

On the day, EKU collected 14 hits, and the Colonels have now scored 44 runs and hit .418 as a team over their last four non-conference games.

Senior Richie Rodriguez, the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week, had another big day at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and a stolen base, while seniors Michael Garcia and Dustin Dunlop and freshman John Wilson, who entered the game as the designated hitter in the top of the third, all picked up two hits apiece in the win.

Freshman left-hander Nick Bozman (2-0) started for EKU and earned the win, tossing two shutout innings to lower his season ERA to 2.89. Senior left-hander Greg Terry, junior right-handers Anthony Bazzani, Chase Greene and Austin Rexroat and sophomore right-hander Blake Bottoms all came on in relief and combined to stifle the Dayton offense to just three runs on eight hits. The Colonel pitching staff also did not walk a batter in the game.

Right-hander Denton Sagerman (1-2) picked up the loss for Dayton (22-27), lasting just one inning and surrendering six runs on seven hits.

The Colonels jumped on the Flyers early, as EKU pushed across four runs in the top of the first and then led the rest of the way.

After Rodriguez opened the game with a walk, he scored on the combination of a single by Grisham and an error by Dayton center fielder Bobby Glover. Senior Jacob Daniel then went down on strikes, but Soloman followed that up by crushing an opposite field two-run homer over the wall in right-center field.  Dunlop added one more run in the inning by singling home senior #A.J. Jamison# with two outs to make the score 4-0.

EKU continued to pile it on in the following two innings. Daniel ripped a two-run double in the top of the second, and then Dunlop scored on an error and Wilson scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Sean Hagen in the top of the third, quickly giving the Colonels a comfortable 8-0 advantage.

Dayton got a run back in the bottom of the third, but Grisham sealed the win with his two-run blast in the top of the sixth, making the score 10-1 and, effectively, putting the Flyers out of contention.

EKU will now host Marshall tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. before welcoming OVC foe Tennessee Tech for a three-game set at Turkey Hughes Field over the weekend.