THE RUNDOWN
DBU took the Friday night opener over Evansville, 2-1, in a game that was decided from the mound. In a battle of aces, Dominic Hamel and Shane Gray went toe to toe, quieting the bats of their opponents. For DBU (23-10), however, an eighth inning score would lift the Patriots to a one run win and a 8-1 conference record.

Evansville got on the board first when Tanner Craig took an 0-2 pitch out of the ballpark for his sixth home run of the year and an incredibly important run to push across against Hamel early on. But Dominic buckled down and would continue to accumulate strikeouts. Hamel, in total, threw 7.0 innings, striking out 10 and allowing just the one run.

Shane Gray had the Patriots number early, dispersing some hard hits balls and keeping DBU off the scoreboard, throwing 7.0 sterling innings. In the eighth, however, DBU got on the board against the Purple Aces bullpen. River Town walked and took second on a wild pitch. Jackson Glenn then singled and also advanced on a wild pitch, putting runners on second and third for Jace Grady. Grady stung a ball up the middle that was initially fielded on a dive, but the ball was bobbled in shallow center field and both Town and Glenn scored to give the Pats a 2-1 lead.

After securing the lead, Peyton Sherlin came in from the bullpen and threw 2.0 innings of one-hit baseball, securing his second save of the year and handing the Patriots an important conference win.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Patriots continue to be successful in the series opener. After tonight's win, DBU is now 7-2 in the first game of a series/weekend.
- DBU now slides 1.5 games ahead of Illinois State for the MVC lead.
- With two wins on Saturday afternoon, the Patriots can secure their third straight MVC series.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
5 – The Patriots made the most of their five hits, two of which were recorded by River Town.
8 – With another outstanding performance, Hamel secured his eighth win of the season.
12 – Hamel and Sherlin combined for 12 strikeouts against the Aces.

DAN HEEFNER ON TAKING THE SERIES:
"Gray was really good all night. I thought we had good at-bats against him. We hit some balls hard and just had nothing to show for it early. It was great to see us break through late. Grady can really run and putting that extra pressure on them helped."

UP NEXT
DBU and Evansville play a double-header tomorrow, starting at 1pm. Both games can be heard on the Patriot Broadcasting Network.