THE RUNDOWN
DBU won their Missouri Valley Conference opener against Valparaiso, 6-1, on Thursday night. With the win, Head Coach Dan Heefner has now collected 500 victories in his 14 years at the helm with DBU.

It didn't take long for the Pats to take control of the conference opener, as they would score three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Following consecutive scoreless frames from starter Kyle Rich, Christian Boulware singled to center field for the first RBI of the day. Andrew Benefield would lift a sacrifice fly to right and George Specht would single home the second and third runs respectively.

Valparaiso would put up their lone run in the top of the fifth with an RBI double. The Pats responded in the sixth and eighth innings, as Boulware would score on a wild pitch and River Town sent a 2-RBI single back up the middle to round out the offense.

Despite the lack of runs on the scoreboard, Valpo sprinkled five hits around the box score in ways that tested the Patriots on several occasions. Tonight, however, the DBU bullpen would slam the door repeatedly en route to the win. The star of the evening was Rhett Kouba who had a career outing. Kouba saved the rest of the Patriot bullpen for Friday's double header by pitching five sensational innings of relief. In those five innings, Kouba dazzled, striking out a career high 10 batters.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Patriots are now 10-3 all-time against Valpo.
- With Kouba's herculean effort, DBU now has a full bullpen to use the rest of the weekend, including their first double header of the year.
- Dan Heefner's 500th career win places him as the 11th winningest active head coach in the NCAA.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
2 – With his two singles tonight, George Specht earned his first career multi-hit game with DBU.
10 – Rich and Kouba combined to strand 10 Valpo base runners tonight.
13 – Hits were hard to come by against the Pats tonight, as 13 Valpo hitters fell by way of the K.

HEAD COACH DAN HEEFNER ON 500 CAREER WINS:
"I think of everyone who has come through this program, the unbelievable players and coaches. It starts with Dr. Cook giving me a shot at this, and continued with all of the support our administration gave us along the way. Dan Fitzgerald and I have been together for nine years now...and Nate Frieling and I have been together the entire time. I don't think people know how much he impacts our program and what he did as a coach and now as an administrator now."

UP NEXT
DBU heads to Springfield, Missouri for a series against the Bears of Missouri State from April 9-11.