WEEK ONE
Location: Spartanburg, S.C.
Game 1 vs. Ball State
   Friday, Feb. 17, 12 noon ET
   Venue: Russell C. King Field (Wofford)
   Live Stats: athletics.wofford.edu
Game 2 at Wofford
   Saturday, Feb. 18, 2 p.m. ET
   Venue: Russell C. King Field (Wofford)
   Live Stats: athletics.wofford.edu
Game 3 vs. Eastern Michigan   
   Sunday, Feb. 19, 11 a.m. ET
   Venue: Harley Park (USC Upstate)
   Live Stats: upstatespartans.com

TEAM INFO
2012 Prospectus
Notes - Week 1
2012 Video Preview
Follow @DaytonBaseball


Weekend Preview
• Dayton opens the 2012 season in Spartanburg, S.C., this weekend – playing Ball State on Friday, Wofford on Saturday and Eastern Michigan on Sunday. It is the third consecutive season that UD has played in Spartanburg during the first two weeks of the season.
• The Flyers, picked to finish third in the A-10, will look to build on a 32-27 record from last season. UD returns five position players and three-of-four pitchers who started a conference game in 2011.
• The last time UD and Ball State met, the Cardinals took a 4-2 decision on April 2, 2008 in Muncie. The teams will meet again in 2012 in Dayton on March 27. 
• Last season Dayton defeated Wofford, 6-5, on Feb. 27 in Spartanburg. Ian Hundley went 2-for-5 with an RBI and Zach Stewart hit a two-run triple to led the Flyers to victory. Dayton has won the last three games against Wofford, also winning twice in 2010.
• The Flyers are 4-0 all-time against Eastern Michigan. The teams last met in a mid-week game on March 13, 2009 at Time Warner Cable Stadium; UD won 7-3.

Who To Watch
• Right-handed pitcher Burny Mitchem is slated to state the first game of the season on Friday. The fifth-year senior needs just nine strikeouts to become Dayton’s career leader in strikeouts, entering the season with 248. Cameron Hobson, an 11th-round MLB draft pick in 2011, is UD’s current record-holder with 256.
• Shortstop Brian Blasik and first baseman C.J. Gillman return for the Flyers after respectively leading the team in batting average last season. Blasik (.369) was a first team all-conference member and Gillman (.378) was a second team all-conference selection in 2011. The tandem helped UD set a program-record 121 stolen bases last season as Blasik set a UD single-season record with 23, while Gillman notched 22.
• Ball State right-handed pitcher Cal Bowling recorded a team-high 3.41 ERA with 48 strikeouts last season and returns as the Friday starter for the second consecutive season. Third baseman Tim Issler led the Cardinals in batting average in 2011 (.330). Starting outfielder Blake Beemer is a Dayton native and graduated from Northmont HS.
• Wofford first baseman Konstantine Diamaduros was named to the SoCon’s Preseason All-Conference second team. Last season he hit .332 with 72 hits and 36 RBI.
• Eastern Michigan centerfielder Brent Ohrman was a second team All-Mid-American Conference last season after hitting .341 with 77 hits and 19 stolen bases.

National Weather Service Forecast – Spartanburg, S.C.
Friday – Sunny, with a high near 65 degrees. North wind between 3 and 7 mph.
Saturday – A chance of rain, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55 degrees. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Sunday – A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53 degrees. Chance of precipitation is 50 percent.

Flyers Picked to Finish Third in A-10
For the second consecutive season Dayton was picked to finish third in the annual Atlantic 10 Preseason Coaches Poll … UD received 129 points, behind Rhode Island (140) and first-place Charlotte (167) … Xavier (124), Richmond (123) and Saint Louis (95) round out the top six … The top six teams in the final standings will complete for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals at the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship held on Fordham's campus in New York from May 23-26 … After being picked to finish third in the preseason in 2011, Dayton ended the season in third place with a 15-9 conference record and 32-27 overall record last season.

Preseason All-Conference recognition
Brian Blasik
A-10 Field Player of the Year – College Sports Madness
First Team All-Conference – College Sports Madness, Buckeye State Baseball

Burny Mitchem
First Team All-Conference – College Sports Madness, Buckeye State Baseball

C.J. Gillman
First Team All-Conference – College Sports Madness
Second Team All-Conference – Buckeye State Baseball

Bobby Glover
First Team All-Conference – College Sports Madness

Mike Coughlin
Second Team All-Conference - College Sports Madness

2011 Pitching Highlights
The Dayton pitching staff has three pitchers who started a conference game last season but lost Cameron Hobson as an 11th-round draft pick. Last season top three starting pitchers – Burny Mitchem, Cameron Hobson, and Mike Hauschild – all rank in the top six in single-season and career strikeouts at Dayton ... The trio has helped the UD pitching staff set four program pitching records – and rank second nationally in walks allowed per nine innings ... Hobson leads the A-10 with a program-record 94 strikeouts this season and a program-record 245 career strikeouts ... Mitchem stands two career strikeouts behind Hobson with 243, and holds the second and third spot in the single-season strikeout record books with 85 in 2010 and 83 in 2011 ... Hauschild ranks sixth all-time in both single-season (81) and career (173) strikeouts ... If all three start in the A-10 Championship, they would be on pace to rank first, second, and third in single-season strikeouts at UD.

Lowest Team ERA Since 1978
In 2011, the Dayton pitching staff broke three program records and recorded the lowest team ERA since 1978 ... UD has set program records in innings pitched (528.1), strikeouts (429) and fewest walks allowed (128) … The Flyers’ team ERA of 3.94 ranks fourth-best in program history and is the lowest earned run average since 1978 ... The 1966 Dayton squad hold a program-record 3.15 ERA … UD also allowed the fourth-fewest earned runs allowed (231) in program history.

Strikeouts Plenty; Walks Few
Dayton finished the 2011 season ranked second in the nation in walks allowed per nine innings (2.18), standing only behind Florida (1.82) ... The Flyer pitching staff also set a program-record 429 strikeouts with just 128 walks ... For every walk, Dayton averaged a conference-best 3.4 strikeouts.

Gillman Record-Setting Hitter
With two hits against Rhode Island on May 20, 2011 C.J. Gillman set Dayton’s single-season hits record with his 85th hit of the season ... Gillman finished the regular season as the A-10’s leader in overall hits (91) and conference-only hits (44) ... The Littleton, Colo., native had an 18-game hitting streak and 25 multi-hit games to his credit this season.

Base Thieves
In 2011, Dayton ranked seventh in the nation in total stolen bases (121) and stolen bases per game (2.05) ... It was the first time in program history that UD recorded over 100 stolen bases in a single season ... Just 17 Division I schools recorded more than 100 stolen bases in 2011 and three are from the A-10 – Dayton, Rhode Island (117), and Charlotte (113) ... Juniors Brian Blasik (23) and C.J. Gillman (22) finished the season ranked first and second, respectively, in single-season steals at Dayton.

Mitchem was Money in Conference Play
When Burny Mitchem started on the mound in 2011, the Flyers went 8-0 in conference games ...  The First Team All-Conference honoree has a 2.19 ERA and seven consecutive wins on the mound heading into post season play ... Mitchem struck out a career-high 10 batters against Rhode Island in his last regular season conference outing – a 13-2 Flyer win ... The Farmington, Mich., native also featured a complete-game shutout of Xavier on May 6 ... Although two former Dayton pitchers have made it to the major-league level in recent history (Craig Stamenn ‘05, Jerry Blevins ‘04) Mitchem is the first UD pitcher to ever earn A-10 First Team All-Conference accolades.

Blasik, A Hitting Machine
Junior Brian Blasik has the second-best batting average in the A-10 at .386 with the second-most hits on the team, despite missing the first 15 games of the season ... Blasik has a hit in 35 of his 40 games played ... The Germantown, Ohio native had a hit in his first 11 games of the season to extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games dating back to last season ... Blasik returned from injury to make his first start of the season on March 15 against Wittenberg, tying his career-high four runs scored in five at-bats ... Blasik is the first Dayton player to be named First Team All-Conference in back-to-back years (2010-11).