THE RUNDDOWN
DBU earned its ninth straight weekend series victory Saturday in a 9-3 win at Valparaiso. Kody Funderburk's fourth-inning home run gave his team the lead for good, as the Patriots (27-13, 9-2 Missouri Valley Conference) won for the fourth time in five games.

Garrett Wolforth's solo home run in the second opened the scoring, but a leadoff walk came back to bite MD Johnson as Valpo (14-23, 4-7 MVC) tied the game in the bottom of the frame.

Funderburk drove in Wolforth, who had been hit by a pitch to lead off the fourth, with a blast to right field to regain the lead. Jameson Hannah added some insurance later in the inning, driving in Luke Bandy with an RBI single. Johnson would pitch out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the frame, inducing a popout and two strikeouts to avoid any damage.

A pair of Valpo errors led to three more DBU runs in the eighth. A double steal by Devlin Granberg and Hannah led to Granberg advancing to home on a throwing error. Jimmy Glowenke reached when the Crusader right fielder dropped his potential sacrifice fly, scoring Hannah. Matt Duce drove Glowenke with an RBI double.

Kragen Kechely provided three innings of perfect relief of Johnson before allowing a pair of runs on a two-out double by Zack Leone in the eighth. Granberg drove in an insurance run with a ninth-inning single to score Funderburk. Hannah grounded out to drive in Blayne Jones with the final run. Jimmy Fouse pitched around a hit and a walk to close out the win.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Patriots have lost only one weekend series all season, a sweep at the hands of Clemson in the second week of the season.
- Hannah reached base the first five times he came to the plate, picking up three hits and two walks. His only out drove in DBU's final run.
- Glowenke batted in the No. 3 spot in the order for the first time in his career and picked up a pair of hits.

COACH DAN HEEFNER ON THE PATRIOTS' BASERUNNING
"I thought we did a really good job on the bases. With the conditions, you're not going to get a bunch of home runs. We got a couple today, but we needed to get every base hit we could. Devlin Granberg is the most confident baserunner we have, but we had a couple other guys take advantage, too."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 - DBU stole five bases Saturday, including three by Granberg.
4 - Kragen Kechely worked 4 innings for the second straight outing.
8 - Eight different Patriots collected hits, and seven had RBIs. Five DBU batters collected two or more hits.
 
 UP NEXT
DBU and Valpo conclude the series on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for noon.