THE RUNDOWN
DBU kept the momentum going with back-to-back series sweeps to start the 2023 season, taking the third game from Austin Peay, 10-4, on Sunday afternoon at Horner Ballpark. It marks the first time in the program's NCAA Division I era that the Patriots have won their first seven games. It also becomes the first time since 2010 that DBU has swept the first two weekend series of the year.
 
Tom Poole wasted almost no time to put the Patriots on the board. After a scoreless top of the first, the Canadian took the second pitch of his leadoff at-bat to right-center field for the game's first run.
 
Ethan Mann followed suit in the next plate appearance, hammering a full-count pitch over the left field wall to go back-to-back with Poole.
 
DBU poured on the runs in the next frame. Kodie Kolden hit a leadoff home run of his own to start the inning, his first of the year.
 
A Poole walk, Mann single, and subsequent walk by Jace Grady forced Austin Peay to substitute Paul Rector for starting pitcher Lyle Miller-Green.
 
Despite the pitching change, the Patriots managed to push across three runs, highlighted by a two-run double off the center field wall by Nate Rombach and a Grant Jay single to give DBU a 7-0 lead. The Patriots would tack on one more run in the third when Mann drove in Kolden on a fielder's choice.
 
After five innings of scoreless, two-hit pitching, Bryson Hammer exited with an eight-run run lead. The Governors took advantage of the pitching change, using all nine spots in its lineup in the frame to score four runs.
 
With two outs in DBU's half of the sixth and Rombach on second base, Luke Heefner stepped to the plate and crushed the Patriots' fourth home run of the day, a two-run blast off the scoreboard in right field. Heefner's homer answered Austin Peay's barrage from the previous half-inning and stretched the DBU margin to six.
 
Jaron DeBerry and Reece Beuter combined for four strikeouts in the last 3.2 innings for DBU and held the Governors scoreless to complete the weekend sweep of Austin Peay.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- With their seventh straight win, the Patriots have a 7-0 record to start a season for the first time in the Division I era.
- DBU tallied 17 stolen bases in the series against Austin Peay, averaging 5.7 per game.
- The Patriot bats had a blistering .305 batting average over the weekend.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 - DBU's seven stolen bases tie the single-game program record.
10 - With 10 strikeouts on Sunday, the Patriot pitching staff has punched out at least 10 opposing batters in all but one game this year (8 versus Fordham on February 19).
44 - Jace Grady's stolen base in the bottom of the first inning ties him with Cody Montgomery for second place on DBU career stolen bases list. He needs one more to tie Austin Krum's record of 45 stolen bags.
  
HEAD COACH DAN HEEFNER ON STARTING THE SEASON 7-0
"I like where we're at. I think we've learned a lot. I think we've gotten better. I think a lot of what we were excited about coming into this season—about the team mentality, the work ethic, and those types of things, guys who want to do it the Patriot way—I think we've seen that. There's a lot of things that you have to play games to learn them and to get better at and create situations, things you can't mimic in practice or even in intrasquad scrimmages…What I saw this weekend and the way the guys competed and played with a little bit of emotion and fire, that gives us hope that, when we are in adverse situations, that this is a group that's going to love it."
 
UP NEXT
The Battle of the Metroplex takes place at Horner Ballpark on Tuesday night when DBU hosts TCU. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 pm.

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