THE RUNDOWN
No. 21 DBU bounced back from a loss in game one of a four-game series to Gonzaga with a convincing 13-2 win over the Bulldogs on Friday night at Horner Ballpark.  Dominic Hamel matched a career-high with a 10-strikeout performance over 5.2 innings and the Patriot offense cranked out 13 hits en route to an 11-run victory.

A Jace Grady triple with the bases loaded broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third, putting DBU (4-1) on top, 3-0.  Facing Gonzaga (3-3) ace Gabriel Hughes, the Patriots struck for another run in the fourth when Austin Bell blasted a two-run homer deep over the wall in right field to hand DBU a 5-0 advantage. 

After an RBI single from Andrew Benefield extended the Patriots' lead to six, Hamel went to the mound looking to close out six scoreless innings of work.  A two-out single from Jack Machtolf brought in the Zags first run and forced Dan Heefner to go to the mound as Hamel exited to a standing ovation from the Horner Ballpark crowd after throwing 98 pitches.

Gonzaga would tack on one more run in the seventh before the Patriots' bats broke out in the seventh and eighth innings.  A two-run single by River Town put DBU up, 8-2, and in the eighth an RBI double from Grady to go along with home runs from Ryan Wrobleski and Town capped-off a five-run inning.

Joey Martin came out of the pen to close out the Zags in the ninth, striking out the first two batters he faced and retired the side in order.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- In Dominic Hamel's 10-strikeout performance, he walked only one batter and allowed just three hits.
- The Patriots have scored 10 or more runs in four of their first five games.
- The win over Gonzaga evens the all-time series at two wins apiece and was the Patriots' first victory over the Zags since March 7, 2005.
 
DAN HEEFNER ON THE TEAM'S RESPONSE AFTER LAST NIGHT'S LOSS
"We talked a lot about mentality and just being confident.  Baseball's a tough game and we talked about having a shooter's mentality.  That same type of mentality applies to baseball.  That needs to be our mentality on the mound and in the box. When things start going bad we don't get down and I thought they did an outstanding job of bouncing back today.  We had really competitive at-bats against a really good arm in Hughes and it's pretty easy to play with confidence behind Dominic Hamel."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
13 – DBU walked 13 times, which is the most by a Patriot team since they drew 14 versus UT San Antonio on February 25, 2014.
4 – River Town put together his first career four-hit game as a Patriot.
3 – Jace Grady's three hits all went for extra bases including a triple and a pair of doubles.
 
UP NEXT
DBU and Gonzaga meet in game three of their four-game series on Saturday afternoon at Horner Ballpark.  First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.