RICHMOND, Va. – Sparked by a pair of Marcos Pujols home runs, third-seeded Dayton composed an early rally before jetting past No. 1 overall Saint Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship elimination round finale, scoring 13 unanswered through the middle innings before staving off a late Hawks comeback attempt en route to a 15-10 decision Thursday evening at The Diamond.

Victory in hand, the Flyers secure a position in Friday afternoon's consolation bracket final, battling the loser between No. 4 Saint Louis and sixth-seeded George Mason for a bid into Saturday's championship final. With the loss, regular-season title-winner Saint Joseph's is eliminated, finishing its season at 28-24-1.

Despite initially falling behind following a three-run homer from the Hawks' Ryan Picollo in the second frame, UD responded with a dominant 13-run unanswered streak stretching from the third to the top of the sixth. The Flyers knotted the score in third with a pair of RBI singles and an RBI groundout before tacking on five in the fourth, three more in the fifth and a final two in the sixth, surging to a 13-3 edge.

During that offensive eruption, Dayton jettisoned a pair of dingers – a Pujols two-run jack to left field and a Nolan Watson solo bomb to leadoff the fifth – while Michael Adair paced the group with two RBI on a pair of hits, notching a single in the fourth and a double later in the sixth.

SJU managed to mount a response of their own in bottom of the sixth, with Ryan Cesarini and Nate Thomas each garnering an RBI on a single and a double, respectively. A second three-run shot, this time from Brandon Drapeau in his first at-bat of the championship, helped the Hawks close the gap behind a four-run eighth, but the late rally proved too little, too late as UD pitching, along with a second Pujols home run, shut the door.

Overall, Pujols led the Flyers with four RBI on 2-of-5 performance at the plate while both Adair and Paxton Tomaini served as the top hitters with three apiece. Five Dayton players tallied multi-hit outings for the game as well while four total generated multiple RBI.

For Saint Joseph's, Picollo and Drapeau's three-run dingers served as the top scoring performances while Max Hitman paced the team behind a 4-for-5 day with three runs scored.

Parker Bard (W, 3-3) elicited the victory following five innings of work, giving up six hits for three earned runs with a notable 10 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Domenic Picone (L, 5-6) was saddled with the loss after finishing 4.0 frames for SJU, surrendering five earned runs on eight hits and two walks while setting down seven on strikes.