Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

RedHawks face La Salle at home following pair of wins in Dayton

Following two wins, one away and one home, over Dayton University on Tuesday and Wednesday, Miami baseball (10-23) will look keep their form when they host La Salle University (6-24) for a three-game series starting Friday at Hayden Park.

MU's pair of victories over the Flyers earlier in the week were by scores of 16-9 and 7-6, with the latter needing 12 innings to decide a winner. In the first game the 'Hawks experienced an offensive explosion and the team scored more runs than it has all year. It was the first time the Red and White eclipsed the double-digit run threshold in a contest.

After only scoring an average of three runs a game during their first 30 games, the RedHawks have gone on a tear -- plating home an average of nine runs per contest.

Despite the offense coming alive, Miami is still in last place in the East Division in the Mid-American Conference with a 2-7 record. La Salle has a 1-8 conference record and occupies the basement of Atlantic-10 Conference.

The Explorers, like the RedHawks, are taking a midseason-break from conference action. La Salle heads into the three-game set against MU on the heels of a four-game losing streak. These defeats came against Davidson College and Lehigh University. The quartet of losses were by scores of 24-4, 6-4, 8-7 and 13-4.

LSU is plagued by a defense that has allowed 48 errors on the field and a pitching staff with a team-earned-run-average of 5.78. Offensively, expect La Salle to be anchored by the infield duo of Ben Faso and Austin Constantini. The sophomore and junior are the only Explorers with batting averages over .300, hitting .312 and .306, respectively.

For the 'Hawks, look for coach Danny Hayden's program to be spearheaded at the plate by the usual suspects - Redshirt senior third baseman Adam Yacek and Redshirt junior infielder Ross Haffey.

Yacek is hitting .311 from the plate with one homerun, 12 doubles, two triples and 14 RBI's. Haffey has hit .305 on the season with six doubles, 20 RBI's and is leading the team with six homeruns.

The first pitch against La Salle is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with the series set to wrap up at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, barring any delays.

Once the final out of this non-conference series has been recorded, MU will focus their attention towards the Joe Nuxhall Classic, where they take on Wright State University on the road at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter