INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler baseball team improved to 19-27 on the year with an 8-1 win over the Dayton Flyers on Wednesday afternoon. Butler scored four in the bottom of the second and added three more in the fifth to turn out the lopsided victory.

Dayton got on the scoreboard first with an RBI single to leftfield in the first inning, but the Butler defense would turn a 5-4-3 double play during the very next at-bat to end the inning. Scoring would stay quiet until the bottom of the second when Butler went on a hit parade that included two doubles and a home run.

Garrett Christman led off the inning with a double to right and Michael Fries followed in the order with an RBI double down the right field line to tie the score at 1-1. Chris Maranto was the first batter retired by the Flyers as his sacrifice bunt advanced Fries to third base with Austin Miller at the dish. While the call was executed perfectly by Maranto, Miller wouldn't need the advancement as he blasted a pitch over the wall in leftfield to give Butler the lead. The fourth and final run of the inning would be scored by Tyler Houston off a throwing error by the Dayton catcher.

Butler extended their lead in the third with an RBI single from Maranto that scored Quincy Quintero, but the fifth inning would decide the game as BU scored three more runs off four hits to take a commanding 8-1 lead.

Maranto once again hurt the Flyers with an RBI single in the inning that sent Quintero home. The biggest blow however was dealt by Houston who tagged Dayton with a two-out two RBI single through the left side of the infield that scored Christman and Maranto.

Connor Mitchell got the start for Butler and after a slow start the tall left-hander would hit his stride to take care of the first four innings. Mitchell picked up his first win of the season by limiting the opposition to just three hits.

Butler put Tyler Rathjen, Bobby Napoleon, Luke Johnson, Kyle Allen and Danny Pobereyko on the bump after Mitchell to get the bullpen some work. As a whole, the unit only allowed one hit, eliminating any chance of a Dayton comeback.

Wednesday's win was a total team effort as multiple players chipped in to generate Butler's eight runs. Austin Miller, Tyler Houston and Chris Maranto all recorded two RBIs in the contest with Garrett Christman leading the hits category with a 4-for-5 day.

Butler will look to ride this momentum into the weekend where they will travel to Washington, D.C. to play an important BIG EAST series against the Hoyas.