March 26, 2010
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - In his first career start, sophomore Eric Van Wyk threw a career-high 7.2 innings and struck out a career-high five Dayton Flyers to earn his first collegiate win as La Salle Baseball opened up Atlantic 10 Conference play with a 3-1 victory over Dayton on Friday afternoon at Hank DeVincent Field.
Van Wyk (1-0), whose previous high for an outing was four innings, twice, and strikeouts was four this season at VMI, scattered three hits and walked three batters but allowed just one earned run in a 106-pitch effort.
He started the day with back-to-back strikeouts and did not allow a hit until the third inning, a runner who was quickly erased with a caught stealing. He faced one over the minimum through the first four frames.
Dayton (9-12, 0-1 A-10), who won the 2009 regular season A-10 crown with a 21-6 conference mark and was a preseason pick to repeat as A-10 champions, put the first run on the board in the fifth after drawing back-to-back walks by Cole Tyrell and Jonathan Castine.
Dan Welch followed with a sacrifice bunt, but reached base to load the bags when the Explorers tried for the lead runner. Brian Blasik hit a sacrifice fly to right to put the Flyers up 1-0, but a caught stealing, one of three on the day for Dayton, and a grounder ended the inning with no further damage.
Flyer starter Burny Mitchem (2-5) threw five scoreless innings to keep his team in front, scattering three hits and a walk in that time. However, a misplayed fly ball to center resulted in Brian Meagher standing on third base with just one out in the sixth.
Brendan Norton followed with a walk and Jon Gyles tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI single through the left side. A balk by Mitchem moved the pair up a base and it was decided to intentionally walk Jeff Flax to load the bases.
Marc Schoch delivered an RBI single to right field to put the Explorers up 2-1, before Mitchem ended the La Salle threat with back-to-back strikeouts.
La Salle (5-14, 1-0 A-10) added a third run in the bottom of the seventh when, with Tony Negrin standing on third base, Meagher executed a perfect squeeze play to put give the Explorers a two-run cushion.
Meanwhile, Van Wyk allowed a runner on base in the sixth - a two-out double was stranded - and the seventh - a lead off single that was thrown out trying to steal, but kept Dayton off the board. In the eighth, he surrendered a one-out walk and after getting a grounder, Pat Christensen came in for relief.
The freshman got the final out of the eight, then finished off the Flyers in the ninth to earn his third save of the season.
Highlighting the Explorers offense was four players with multi-hit games - Norton, Gyles, Schoch, and Negrin. For Norton, it was his team-leading 10th multi-hit game of the year.
John Malloy, whose 14-game hitting streak came to an end on Wednesday, singled in the third to extend his conference only hitting streak to 17 straight games dating back to last season. He has also now reached base in all 19 games this season and 39 straight dating back to 2009.
The two teams will continue their three-game A-10 series on Saturday with first pitch slated for 1 PM.
