Baseball Returns Home To Host Critical A-10 Weekend Series With Dayton

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AMBLER - Having an Atlantic 10 series win under their belts after taking two of three at Massachusetts last weekend, Temple returns home to host the Dayton Flyers, who come in ranked second in the conference. With four wins in league play thus far and this deep into the season, the Owls have no room for a setback from here on out. Since winning the final game of the series with Richmond, the Owls have gone 3-1 in A-10 games and now look to improve last season's win total in league play by notching one more victory. All three game will have live stats and Twitter updates provided. Saturday's 1:00 p.m. start will be streamed live on Owl Access.

SCOUTING THE OWLS (16-28, 4-11)...

In their last time out, the Owls had a game they would like to forget about. At Villanova on Tuesday, the Wildcats' pitching staff shut the Temple offense down, as it was limited to just a single hit, which was pounded out by senior Jabair Khan in the seventh inning. The Owls went on to lose 13-1 in the midweek non-conference matchup.

The dynamic of the Owls' offense has changed over the last six games. After spending most of the season in the three-hole, redshirt senior Steve Nikorak has hit out of the leadoff spot, while junior Allen Stiles has been placed in the starting lineup and has provided timely hits and speed not just on the basepaths, but out in right field.

Head coach Ryan Wheeler will send his usual suspects out to the mound this weekend. Senior Dan Moller is coming off his career-longest outing, in which he struck out a career-high seven batters. All three of Temple's starters had outstanding performances last weekend and will hope to carry over their dominance against a very pesky Dayton squad who is hitting .303 as a team. Sophomore Matt Hockenberry and freshman Patrick Peterson will make starts Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Out of the 'pen, the Owls have two pitchers that have program milestone marks in sight. Senior Brian Sustersic has six saves in his career-all coming this season-which has him tied for seventh all-time at Temple and just eight off from tying the school record.

Redshirt junior Steve Visnic made another appearance on Tuesday, giving him 80 in his career at Temple thus far. He stands just four away from tying Peter Moore.

From here, the Owls will have their longest gap in between games since the first week of the season, as they won't play a midweek game before visiting Olean, N.Y. to take on St. Bonaventure next weekend.

SCOUTING THE FLYERS (21-24, 10-5)...

Dayton comes to Ambler right where they want to be this late in the year. Owning a record of 10-5 in Atlantic 10 play, the Flyers sit in second place of the conference with three weekends remaining. As a team, the Flyers are killing the baseball, hitting .302. Bobby Glover is carrying the team, having 67 hits, seven home runs and a .353 batting average. C.J. Gillman has been a force as well. Hitting .339, he also has over 60 hits, but has supplied the Flyers with a bulk of the offense, having 49 RBI.

The Flyers are playing for the first time since last Sunday when it wrapped up a weekend set at Richmond, where it took the first two games of the series.

Mike Hauschild will open the series with the Owls on the mound before Tim Bury goes to work on Saturday. A starter for Sunday has not yet been determined, but will likely Burny Mitchem.

THE SERIES...

Dayton holds the advantage in head-to-head meetings against Temple with a record of 14-11-0. In last season's weekend series in Dayton, the Owls salvaged a victory in the three-game set, by winning by a count of 17-11 in the series rubber match. The Flyers swept the Owls the last time they visited Skip Wilson Field, which was in 2010.

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Baseball Returns Home To Host Critical A-10 Weekend Series With Dayton

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