DAYTON, Ohio – After four consecutive one-run games, the Saint Joseph's baseball team removed all doubt early on in a 14-3 rout of Dayton in the series finale between the two teams at Woerner Field at Time Warner Cable Stadium on Sunday. The Hawks sent nine men to the plate in both the second and fourth innings and pounded out 15 hits on the day.
All nine hitters in the starting lineup reached base in the game; eight different Hawks recorded a hit, while seven scored at least one run. John Brue and Stefan Kancylarz notched three hits and two runs apiece; Brue drove in four while Kancylarz brought home three. Ryan Pater added three hits and scored three times as well.
Saint Joseph's (16-20 overall, 6-8 Atlantic 10) jumped ahead for the third day in a row, plating a two-out run as Brue walked, Deon Stafford singled, and Kancylarz laced a single of his own to score Brue with the game's first run.
SJU broke the game open early on Sunday, scoring five in the second and three in the third. Brian Lau was hit by a pitch to start the second, went to second on a groundout, and reached third on an infield single by Pater. Matt Maul followed with a single to score Lau and double the lead. Taylor Boyd was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Brue, who beat out an infield single of his own to score Pater and make it a 3-0 game.
Stafford followed with a sacrifice fly to score Maul before Kancylarz's two-run single brought home Boyd and Brue and extended the lead to 6-0.
Lau then led off the third with a walk before Lansing Veeder and Pater singled to load the bases. Lau was thrown out at the plate on a grounder by Maul, but Boyd's fly ball to right was deep enough to score Veeder and pushed the lead to seven. Brue then cleared the bases with a double to give the Hawks a 9-0 lead.
Dayton (12-30 overall, 3-15 Atlantic 10) got on the board in the third, scoring two runs without a hit thanks to four walks, a hit batsman, and an RBI groundout.
The Hawks went back to work in the fourth, tacking on four to take a double-digit lead. Kancylarz led off with a double and went to third on an infield single by Charlie Coghlin. Lau followed with an infield single of his own to score Kancylarz and up the lead to 10-2. An error then allowed Veeder to reach and Lau to score before Pater notched another infield single to put runners on the corners.
Maul then reached safely on another error that allowed Veeder to score before Brue drove in his fourth run of the day with another single two batters later to give the Hawks a 13-2 lead.
Kancylarz would lead off the eighth with a walk and make his way to third with two outs before an error on catcher Matt Poland allowed him to score the Hawks' final run of the game.
The Flyers got one last run in the ninth as Robbie Doring led off with a double, went to third on a groundout, and scored on a two-out single by Mitch Coughlin.
Justin Aungst relieved Tim Ponto in the third inning and finished the game for SJU, allowing one run and scattering six hits in six and a third innings. He improved to 3-0 on the year. Ponto was charged with two runs on one hit, walking four and striking out four in two and two-thirds innings of work.
Noah Buettgen took the loss for Dayton, falling to 2-6. He allowed six runs on six hits in two innings.
The Hawks will wrap up their seven-game road swing with a game at Rider on Tuesday and at Monmouth on Wednesday. Wednesday's game will be aired live online on ESPN3.
