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MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dragons Gameday September 2nd

September 2, 2009 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Today's Game: The Dayton Dragons (affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds) host the South Bend Silver Hawks (affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks) in the first game of a three-game series.

Season Series: South Bend 7, Dayton 5, (At Dayton: Dayton 3, South Bend 1).

Dayton in Last Series vs. Lansing: 2-2 (Team Batting Average: .309; Team ERA: 3.50).

The Race: Dayton will qualify as the wildcard entry in the Eastern Division Second Half race by finishing ahead of South Bend and Lansing in the second half standings. Entering tonight's games, Dayton is one and one-half games behind South Bend for the spot with six games to play.

Playoff Possibilities: The Dragons "magic number" to reach the playoffs is eight (any combination of Dayton wins and South Bend losses totaling eight would put the Dragons in the playoffs). If they sweep this series with South Bend, the magic number would automatically reduce by an additional one game as Dayton would clinch the tie-breaker. South Bend's "magic number" is five. Their magic number would reduce by an additional one game if they win any of the three games in the Dayton series (one South Bend win in the series would give them the tie-breaker).

Clinching Scenarios: Dayton could clinch a playoff spot by sweeping the series with South Bend, winning one game vs. Great Lakes, and getting one South Bend loss to Lansing. They could also clinch by winning two of three vs. South Bend, winning all three games at Great Lakes, and seeing South Bend split their two remaining games vs. Lansing. South Bend would clinch the spot by winning two of three in Dayton.

Last Game: Lansing defeated Dayton 7-3 on Monday to earn a split of the four-game series. Mike McDade's three-run home run in the eighth inning provided the knock-out blow for the Lugnuts as they built a 7-0 lead. Humberto Sosa hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Dragons. Carlos Mendez had three hits.

Today's Starting Pitcher: Mark Serrano makes his eighth professional start tonight. Serrano was drafted by the Reds in the sixth round in 2009 out of Oral Roberts University. He began his pro career with Billings and made three relief appearances (0-0, 1.42, 6.1 IP). He made his Dragons debut on July 16th and made three relief appearances before joining the starting rotation when Matt Fairel was promoted to Sarasota. In his last start Thursday at South Bend, Serrano suffered his first career loss (5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO). Serrano was the 2009 Summit League Player of the Year at Oral Roberts and a 2nd Team All-American, going 9-1 with a 2.50 earned run average. He ranked second in all of college baseball in strikeouts per nine innings, striking out 132 batters in only 86 and one-third innings. He walked only 25 hitters and limited opposing batters to a .196 batting average. He played two years at Cypress Junior College in California and was a Dean's List student at Downey (Cal.) High School.

Skipper: Todd Benzinger makes his professional baseball managerial debut in 2009. Benzinger enjoyed a nine-year major league playing career from 1987-1995 with the Reds, Red Sox, Royals, Dodgers, and Giants. Todd is a former first baseman who recorded the final putout of the 1990 World Series with the Reds to complete their four-game sweep of the Oakland A's. Benzinger is a native of the Cincinnati area and currently resides in West Chester, Ohio. He has enjoyed a highly-successful career coaching girls' high school basketball since 1999.

Individual Notes

- Alex Oliveras is batting .358 over his last 24 games (entire month of August) with 2 HR, 14 RBI, and 18 R.

- Humberto Sosa is batting .355 over his last 21 games.

Team Notes

- The Dragons are 6-14 over the last 20 games. They went 13-17 in August (9-9 at home in August).

Team Batting Notes

- Dayton hopes for improvement over last week's four-game series in South Bend in which they scored a total of nine runs. South Bend swept the series despite scoring more than four runs in only one of the four games. Dayton hit .202 in the series, then hit .309 in the next four-game set vs. Lansing that ended Monday.

- Dayton is batting .241 over the last 20 games (since August 10), posting a record of 6-14 over those games.

- The Dragons are batting .273 in the second half (63 games) after batting .250 in the first half (70 games).

Team Pitching Notes

- On Monday, Dayton pitchers issued no walks and struck out 13 batters. This was the second time in the series that Dayton had allowed no walks and struck out 10 or more batters.

- The Dragons second half team ERA is 4.37. The first half ERA was 4.50.

Check out the Dayton Dragons Statistics



Midwest League Stories from September 2, 2009


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