The Stetson Hatters were flat and lifeless for four innings Wednesday night in their game against Siena at Melching Field and coach Pete Dunn was worried about how to get his team going.

Junior Colton Lightner took care of the teams' motivation with one swing of bat, blasting a three-run homer in the fifth inning, sparking the Hatters to a 13-6 victory over the Saints.

Stetson improved to 3-2 on the year with the win while Siena dropped to 0-5. The victory ran Stetson's all-time record against Siena to 39-4.

Part of the Hatters early issues in the game came from the mound where sophomore Ben Onyshko struggled to find the strike zone in his first start of the year.

“We slept walked through the first four innings,” Dunn said. “We looked horrible at the plate. Ben struggled on the mound and that didn't help much. Their guys got the run early, then the home run and I knew that we had better wake up or we were going to lose.”

The Saints got on the board first in the second inning, taking advantage of a walk to manufacture a run on a two-out single by Don Vassquez. The lead grew to 2-0 when Dan Swain led off the third inning with a solo home run. Back-to-back doubles from Jordan Bishop and Joe Drpich off freshman Logan Gilbert in the fifth inning made it 3-0 and had the Hatters in danger of losing to a team they have owned for years.

Things changed for the Hatters in the bottom of the fifth.

“We got a couple of guys on and got the big jolt from our nine-hole hitter who is playing because someone is hurt,” Dunn said. “That kick-started us and got us going and from there we were able to build a lead. It wasn't pretty the first four innings. We were uninspired and looked like we didn't want to be out there.”

For Lightner, who lost a close battle for the starting shortstop job to freshman Matt Morales during the preseason, the home run was the first of his career. The junior was in the lineup at third base for a second straight day because Cory Reid is suffering from a sore shoulder.

“In my first at bat, I hit a line drive to center field and was right on it,” Lightner said. “I felt pretty good at the plate and when I got back up there I just put a good swing on it. It felt good because it was my first hit of the year. It got a little help from the wind.

“The thing I was happiest about was getting our offense going. We were hitting the ball hard, but nothing was landing. That got us over the top and everyone started hitting. Everyone was pumped. Before I even got to the dugout, everyone was pumped up. I have a lot of good teammates.”

The home run keyed a five-run fifth that basically ended the night for Siena starting pitcher Dylan D'Anna (0-1). The freshman allowed those five runs on eight hits, six of which came in the fifth inning.

“I am happy for Colton and proud of him,” Dunn said. “It went right down to the opening game between him and Morales at short. We went with Morales, but Colton kept his head up. He has had an opportunity to be out there for Cory the last two days and came up big tonight. He was the reason we won the game tonight because he got us back into the game with one swing. He created some offense that we hadn't seen to that point.”

Once the bats heated up, they stayed hot. The Hatters batted around in the five-run fifth and then did so again, scoring six more runs in the sixth inning. Lightner drove in another run with a single in that frame. Stetson finished its offensive output in the eighth inning, scoring two more runs.

Besides Lightner, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in four, the Hatters got two hits each from Jacob Koos, Will Mackenzie, Jack Machonis and Morales.

Gilbert earned his first win in relief of Onyshko, allowing the one run on two hits in 2.2 innings of work. Another freshman, Erik Wiebke, pitched an inning, allowing a pair of unearned runs, following by sophomore Eliot Shapleigh for two batters and senior Josh Thorne for the final 2.2 innings.

“We didn't want to go to Gilbert and Wiebke that early in the game because we wanted to make sure they would be ready for this weekend,” Dunn said. “They will be ready, but I don't know if they will be ready for Friday.”

The Hatters will open a three-game series against Creighton on Friday night. The Bluejays (0-3) opened the year by dropping three straight close games to Fresno State, but will come to DeLand with confidence after having swept Stetson at home last year.

“Creighton is going to be scrappy and play hard,” Dunn said. “We had better not be surprised by them because they sure rubbed our noses in it last year. This is a veteran team for the most part and I hope they show up with a chip on their shoulders.”

The series will open Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and will include games on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.