Baseball: Dayton Rallies to Beat Brearley, 9-2, in Union County Tournament

CLARK,  NJ -- Two years removed from its surprise appearance in the Union County Tournament final, the Dayton baseball program appears ready to make some noise again.

The 10th-seeded Bulldogs scored eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings and Peter Ramirez pitched four innings of one-hit relief as Dayton defeated seventh-seeded Brearley, 9-2, in the opening round of the UCT on Saturday at A.L. Johnson High School.

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Brandyn Bernknopf went 2-for-4 with a triple, three runs batted in and two huge plays in center field for Dayton (7-8), which won its third game in a row. Bernknopf tripled on a misjudged flyball to deep right field leading off the second inning and scored on Jon Rodrigues' squeeze bunt with one out to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead against junior left-hander Sean Budis, who came into the game with some of the most impressive credentials of any pitcher in the county.

Brearley (11-5) took a 2-1 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning on a hit batsman, a double by Reymundo Gonzalez, Dom Condo's sacrifice fly and Antonio Esposito's RBI single. But Dayton starter Patrick Ferguson escaped further trouble when Bernknopf caught a line drive to center field and then doubled Esposito off first base to end the inning. Bernknopf had made a spectacular diving catch to end the second inning.

Ramirez, a senior right-hander, came on to start the fourth inning and ended up pitching four shutout innings with three strikeouts and two walks to get credit for the win.

Ferguson, who stayed in the game at first base after he was done on the mound, led off the fifth with a single -- the second hit for the left-handed batter against the lefty-throwing Budis. Mikey Corea walked and, with one out, Peter Ramirez' RBI single to right field tied the game, 2-2. With the bases loaded and two out, Bernknopf laced a two-run single to center, giving the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead.

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Then the dam broke for Brearley in the top of the sixth, and again, it was the lower half of Dayton's order that got things started, as Jon Rodrigues led off with an infield single when Brearley's second baseman couldn't hold on to Rodrigues' hump-back liner. He took second on a bunt by Ferguson, then scored when the lefty-swinging Corea lined an RBI single to left-center, making it 5-2.

After a pitching change, Nate Goldman and Peter Ramirez both walked and Frank Dasti delivered a run-scoring single to left. Michael Ramirez followed with a two-run single to right-center for an 8-2 lead. The final run scored on Bernknopf's fielder's choice grounder.

Dayton began this season with six losses in its first eight games. One of those losses was a 19-0 game against Brearley.

The Bulldogs will take on second-seeded Gov. Livingston in the quarterfinal round up on the hill in Berkeley Heights on Wednesday afternoon.

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