MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dragons Rolled on Independence Day by Swing 14-3

Published on July 4, 2004 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Dayton, OH– The Dayton Dragons (4-6, 31-49) have had a problem with falling behind in the early innings during the 2004 season. The Swing of the Quad Cities (7-4, 40-37) jumped on the Dragons scoring 14 runs in the first five innings of the game on route to a one sided 14-3 win in front of an Independence Day crowd of 9,122 at Fifth Third Field.

The theme of the night for the Dragons pitching staff all night was the inability to get the third out of the inning. The Swing picked up four two out runs in the first inning of Dayton starter David Shafer (L, 5-3) to take a 4-0 lead. Kyle Phillips and Dusty Gomon each picked up RBI singles, while Josh Johnson added a two RBI double. In the second inning with two down it was Phillips again with the big blow, this time his seventh homer of the season, a three run shot to right field gave the Swing a 7-0 lead.

Damian Ursin (ND) relieved Shafer after 2.0 innings of work. Ursin got the first two Quad Cities hitters in the third with no problem before allowing a two out walk and back-to-back RBI double to Ryan Spataro and J.R. Taylor for a 9-0 Swing lead.

The Swing added to the tally off Ursin in the fourth with four more runs as the right hander walked five in the inning, including two with the bases loaded. Spataro picked up his second RBI in as many innings with a single and Taylor picked up his second ribby of the night on a fielder's choice. Through four innings the Swing led 13-0.

The Dragons finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI ground out by Habelito Hernandez with one down. Dayton had loaded the bases with none out against Swing starter Nick Blackburn (W, 4-4) but were unable to push more than one run across the plate. The single tally would be all that Blackburn would allow in his 6.0 innings of work on the night. The right hander gave up three hits and one unearned run with four strikeouts and two walks.

Brock Till (ND) replaced Ursin with one down in the fourth and began his first full inning of relief in the fifth. The right hander allowed a single run on a lead off double to Brock Peterson and a one out RBI single to Gomon to push the lead to 14-1.

Ben Himes gave the Dragons their only offensive highlight of the night with his seventh HR of the season, a two run shot to left in the eighth inning off Swing reliever Billy Mauer to close out the scoring at 14-3. T.J. Prunty retired the Dragons one, two, three, in the ninth in a non save situation to end the game.

The Dragons entertain the Swing for the second game of a four game series Monday afternoon at 2:00 PM. 1410 ESPN Radio will have live coverage of all six games beginning with the pre game show on Monday night at 1:30 PM. The Dragons will send RHP Justin Gillman to the hill; Quad Cities will counter with RHP Chris Schutt.

Check out the Dayton Dragons Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Midwest League Stories from July 4, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central