SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- William Woods starter Dane Smith provided his team with a spectacular start in the first round of the American Midwest Conference Tournament on Thursday, as he allowed just one hit, and struck out eight, over six innings of work to help the No. 3-seeded William Woods University baseball team collect a 10-1 opening-round win over No. 6 seed Park University.

Smith (9-1, 3.15 ERA), who has been William Woods' (36-10, 19-8 AMC) best starter this season, gave another ace-like performance in Thursday's first round game against Park University (17-24, 12-15 AMC) to help the Owls advance to take on Lyon College tomorrow night in the next round of the AMC Tournament. The righty kept the Pirates off balance all afternoon, as he gave up just one hit, and struck out a career-high eight batters in six innings, to collect his ninth win of the season.

For the third time in his last four starts, Smith entered the seventh inning with a shutout, but was charged with a run after he left the game, as he allowed a lead-off walk that eventually game around to score the lone run for Park. The one-hit outing was the third of the season for Smith, and his first since he tossed a one-hit complete game shutout against Hannibal-LaGrange back on Mar. 6.

The WWU offense broke out of a recent funk on Thursday, as they busted out 15 hits, one more than they had in last weekend's three-game series against Benedictine University at Springfield, and collected double-digit runs for the first time since April 19 against Mid-Continent University.

Austin Clapp, Sam Moon, and Nick Spagnola highlighted the day for William Woods at the plate, as the trio each had a three-hit performance against the Park University pitching staff. Moon went 3-for-6 and collected the only extra-base hits for the Owls, as he led off the game with a triple and followed that with a two-run RBI double in the eighth inning. Clapp also drove in two runs on the day with a pair of RBI singles in the first and fifth innings.

Dustin Kremer also had a multi-hit afternoon for WWU, as he went 2-for-3 at the plate.

Milan Pleacher (3-5, 3.79 ERA) suffered the loss for Park University, as he gave up six runs, all earned, on 10 hits over six innings of work.  The righty had a rough start, as he gave up four in the first inning, but settled down and allowed only one hit over the next three innings before giving up two more runs in the fifth inning.

Smith's performance for William Woods made it tough on the Pirates all night, as they were only able to collect one run off three hits all night. Kirk Pruitt ended Smith's no-hit bid in the fifth inning with a single, and Christian Torres and Kyzer Hoover each collected a hit off of the WWU bullpen.

The Owls offense gave Smith a lead before he took to the mound, as they struck with four run in the top of the first inning. Moon led off the game with a triple, and would score on the next at-bat, as Cody Stewart sent a RBI single into shallow left field. The speedy centerfielder would be brought in two batters later off of a Spagnola RBI single to center.  Clapp drove in the third run of the inning with a groundball through the hole at short to score Zach Nichols. After a Kremer walk, Alex St. Pierre brought in the final run of the frame with a 5-3 fielder's choice to score Spagnola.

Smith got himself in trouble in the third inning, as he struck out Shaun William Jr. to lead off the inning, but he was still able to reach base after a dropped third strike. The righty would walk the next batter, and Park pulled off a double-steal to put runners on second and third with no out.

The starter would rebound from there, as he retired the next two batters, and after an intentional walk to load the bases, ended the inning with a strikeout, keeping his no-hit bid in check.

William Woods pushes its lead to six in the top of the fifth, as a two-out rally plated a pair of runs, giving the Owls a 6-0 lead.

Park University finally broke through with a hit in the fifth inning, but it would end up being harmless, as Smith got out of the frame with no damage done.  The Pirates got its lone run in the seventh, as a lead-off walk by Smith would come all the way around the bases to cut WWU's advantage to five, at 6-1.

The Owls would put the game completely out of reach in the top of the eighth, as they scored four runs in the frame to take a commanding 10-1 lead. That would be enough of a lead for the William Woods' bullpen to hold, as the combination of Ryan Yuengel and Ryan Schuermann allowed just two hits over the game's final three innings to help WWU advance to the winner's bracket of the AMC Tournament.

William Woods will be back in action tomorrow night, as they will play No. 2 seed Lyon College.  The Scots defeated Mid-Continent University, 8-6, tonight in the day's final contest. WWU won the season-series between the two schools, as they took two of three against Lyon College at Owls Field back on Mar. 28 and 29. The Owls took the first two games of the series (2-0, 8-1) before falling to LC in the finale, 8-4. First-pitch from Lanpheir Park is set for 7 p.m.

Fans can click here to see the full AMC Tournament bracket. Also, fans looking for either audio or video of tomorrow's game click on the link here.