Game Notes (PDF)

Bracket (NCAA.com) | Regional Central (AggieAthletics.com)

WEEK 16 /// NCAA College Station Regional
Location: College Station, Texas
Venue: Blue Bell Park (Texas A&M)
TV: ESPN3 (Ducis Rodgers, Chris Burke)
Live Stats: NCAA.com

DAYTON AT A GLANCE
    Record: 31-28, 17-7 t-1st Atlantic 10
    Coach: Tony Vittorio (373-354, 13th season)
• Dayton won nine of its last 10 games, including six consecutive, to capture the program’s first Atlantic 10 Conference tournament title – claiming the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. Senior right-handed pitcher Burny Mitchem was named the A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player with two saves and a win during Dayton’s 3-0 tournament run.
• Dayton leads the nation in stolen bases (162), featuring eight players with 10 or more steals. Senior shortstop Brian Blasik owns UD’s career (64) and single-season (35 - 2012) stolen base records.
• Dayton was the A-10’s most productive offense all season, leading in batting average (.293), runs scored (360), hits (618), runs batted in (325), stolen bases (162) and total bases (842). Blasik and senior centerfielder Bobby Glover were both named A-10 First Team All-Conference.
• The pitching staff is anchored by Second Team All-Conference righty Tim Bury with a 3.14 earned run average and 8-2 record. Seniors Burny Mitchem and Mike Hauschild are respectively ranked first-and-second in career strikeouts and second-and-third in career wins at Dayton. Mitchem has 24 wins and 318 strikeouts, while Hauschild has 23 wins and 264 strikeouts.
• After starting the season 2-9, Head Coach Tony Vittorio and a group of 10 contributing seniors led the Flyers’ resurgence to a share of the A-10 regular season title and its first NCAA tournament bid.

UD ATHLETICS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
Baseball is the fourth team from UD to compete in the NCAA tournament this academic year, joining volleyball, women’s soccer and women’s basketball. Volleyball, women’s basketball and now baseball have all competed in College Station for the NCAA tournament.

2012 TEAM AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Most Valuable Player: Bobby Glover
Most Valuable Pitcher: Tim Bury
Most Improved Player: Zach Stewart
Best Practice Player: Mike Coughlin

TEXAS A&M AT A GLANCE
   Record: 42-16, 16-8 Big 12
   Coach: Rob Childress
• No. 8 Texas A&M (USA Today Coaches) ended the regular season with 13 wins in the last 15 games to earn the right to host a Regional for the second consecutive year.
• The Aggies will be making their sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Regionals (28th overall). Rob Childress has led Texas A&M to the Regionals in six of his seven years as head coach.
• Last season, A&M advanced out of the College Station Regional to defeat Florida State in the Super Regionals and play in the College World Series for the first time since 1999. The Aggies have five CWS appearances overall.
• After a strong finish to the regular season, the Aggies placed second in the final Big 12 standings and went 1-2 in the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City.
• Senior infielder Jacob House, junior outfielder Tyler Naquin, senior starting pitcher Ross Stripling and junior starting pitcher Michael Wacha are all First Team All-Big 12 selections.
• A&M ranks fourth in the nation in stolen bases (127), behind top-ranked Dayton (162).
• The Aggies pitching staff ranks fourth in the nation in earned run average (2.86) and fourth in walks allowed per nine innings (2.21). A&M leads the NCAA in WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) with a 1.12 ratio.
• Texas A&M is ranked ninth nationally in attendance with an average of 4,358 fans per game at Blue Bell Park.

TCU AT A GLANCE
   Record: 36-19, 18-6 Mountain West
   Coach: Jim Schlossnagle
• The Horned Frogs earned a program-record ninth straight trip to the NCAA Regionals this season after earning a share of the Mountain West Conference regular season title with New Mexico. This is the Frogs 11th overall trip to the postseason. In 2010 TCU advanced to the College World Series for the first time.
• Freshman right-handed pitcher Preston Morrison was named both the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year postseason award. Morrison is 9-1 overall with a 1.73 earned run average, 64 strikeouts and eight walks in 98 2/3 innings pitched.
• Outfielder Jason Coats and right-handed pitcher Andrew Mitchell were also first-team all-conference selections.
• Jim Schlossnagle is in his ninth season at TCU with a 384-172 record.
• Based in Fort Worth, Texas, TCU closed out its home season ranked 11th nationally in attendance with an average of 4,100 fans per game.

OLE MISS AT A GLANCE
   Record: 35-24, 14-16 SEC
   Coach: Mike Bianco
• Ole Miss is making its 17th NCAA Regional appearance, having advanced to the College World Series four times.
• The Rebels had three players honored with selections to All-SEC teams by the league's coaches – Alex Yarbrough (first-team) Matt Snyder (second-team) and Bobby Wahl (second-team).
• Yarbrough leads the Rebels with a.389 batting average, 91 hits and 17 doubles. 
• Starting pitcher Wahl has a 2.26 earned run average and 6-3 record in 15 starts. Wahl leads the Rebels with 90 strikeouts and as a team Ole Miss ranks ninth nationally in strikeouts per nine innings.
• Head Coach Mike Bianco has taken the Rebels to 10 postseason appearances in his 12th season with the program.
• Ole Miss closed out its home season ranked fourth nationally in attendance with an average of 7,471 fans per game.

National Weather Service Forecast – College Station, Texas
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 88.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 69.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 92.

ATLANTIC 10 REGULAR SEASON & TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
• Dayton captured a share of the 2012 Atlantic 10 regular season title by finishing conference play with six consecutive wins.
• It was Dayton’s second regular season conference title in four seasons.
• In 2009, UD won the program’s first-ever conference title with a program-record 38 wins and a 21-6 A-10 record. That season, the Flyers clinched the title after a 13-game conference winning streak.
• Entering the final weekend of the 2012 regular season, Dayton needed to sweep La Salle on the road in order to share the title with Saint Louis, which had a conference bye in the last week. The Flyers swept La Salle after two one-run games and a complete-game effort from RHP Parker Schrage in the series finale. 
• UD continued its winning streak against A-10 opponents into the conference tournament, going 3-0 after earning first-round bye to win the first tournament title in program history.

NATIONAL STOLEN BASES LEADERS
• Dayton ended the regular season as the nation’s leader in stolen bases, totaling a program-record 156 and averaging 2.79 per game.
• The Flyers were the first Division I team to reach 100 stolen bases this season, doing so against Fordham on April 13.
• The Flyers have only been caught stealing just 31 times with an 83.4 percent success rate.
• Four Flyers have more than 10 stolen bases, led by Brian Blasik’s program-record 34. Bobby Glover has the second-most steals in a single-season at UD with 23. C.J. Gillman (19) and Robby Sunderman (11) round out the group of four with double-digit steals.
• UD stole a season-high 11 bases against Oakland (3/16/12) and nine against Northern Illinois (3/11/12).
• Dayton’s opponents have 60 stolen bases on 93 attempts (64.5 percent).
• Last season UD recorded over 100 steals for the first time in program history (121), ranking seventh in the nation.
• UD began the season with at least one stolen base in 20 consecutive games.
• The NCAA record for steals in a season is 333 set by Wichita State in 1982 (87 games). The steals per-game record is 5.47 set by Howard in 1976 (208 in 38 games).

WINNING STREAK
• Dayton is on a season-long six-game winning streak entering Regional play.
• Before UD’s current winning streak, there have been neither winning streaks nor losing streaks longer than three games this season.
• Dayton won the last nine consecutive games against A-10 opponents, including the A-10 tournament.

ALL-CONFERENCE RUNDOWN
• Shortstop Brian Blasik led the A-10 in total hits and stolen bases to become the first Flyer in program history to be named A-10 First Team All-Conference three consecutive seasons.
• Dayton’s starting outfield is made up off All-Conference players – centerfielder Bobby Glover (first team), left fielder Zach Stewart (second team) and right fielder C.J. Gillman (second team).
• Senior right-handed pitcher Tim Bury led the A-10 in wins during conference play (6) and was named Second Team All-Conference.
• A program-record three student-athletes were named A-10 Academic All-Conference – Gillman, junior pitcher Bryce Lahrman and sophomore third baseman Robby Sunderman. It is the second consecutive season Lahrman has been on the Academic All-Conference team.
• Rhode Island outfielder Jeff Roy was named Player of the Year, UMass starting pitcher Joe Popielarczyk named Pitcher of the Year and Richmond pitcher Zak Sterling name Rookie of the Year. Saint Louis coach Darin Hendrickson was named Coach of the Year for guiding SLU to 40 wins and share of the A-10 regular season title.

MITCHEM TURNING UP THE DIAL
• Coming out of the bullpen this season, senior Burny Mitchem has 0.25 earned run average in 36 innings pitched. Mitchem has not allowed a run in eight appearances and has allowed only one earned run from the bullpen.
• Mitchem has earned a save or a win in each of his last seven appearances (four wins and three saves).
• The fifth-year senior was named the A-10 Championship’s Most Outstanding Player after earning two saves and a win during Dayton’s three-game run to win its first-ever tournament title.
• In the last three weekends of the season, Mitchem was used at least twice in all three weekend series.

MID-WEEK VS. WEEKEND
• The Flyers are 29-16 during weekend games this season, including wins in 19 of the last 24 weekend games.
• During mid-week games, the Flyers have a 2-12 record and 7.59 earned run average.

SLOW START, BUT GREAT SUCCESS
• After starting the season with a 2-9 record – the slowest start in 10 years – the Flyers are now 31-28 (17-7 A-10) with a share of the A-10 regular season title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
• The last time Dayton stated 2-9 was in 2003, finishing 16-36 with the lowest winning percentage in A-10 play (4-20, .166).

AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS
• Texas A&M will be the third nationally-ranked team Dayton has faced this season
• UD is 1-3 record against ranked teams this season.
• Dayton won the first of three games against then No. 30 Saint Louis (Collegiate Baseball), 13-12 on March 30.
• UD played top-ranked Kentucky (Collegiate Baseball) in a mid-week road game on April 4, losing 19-6 despite taking an early 5-1 lead in the second inning.

BURY'S HOT STREAK
• Right-handed pitcher Tim Bury won a string of six consecutive starts to solidify his standing as one of the A-10’s best pitchers this season.
• In each of those six starts Bury was the winning pitcher and lasted at least eight full innings.
• Three of the six starts were complete-game efforts, including a complete-game shutout at Richmond on April 28, which earned him A-10 Pitcher of the Week honors.
• The Overland Park, Kan., native allowed just seven runs during six starts with a 1.21 earned run average.
• During conference play, Bury leads UD with a 6-1 record and 1.78 ERA.

WALK-OFF VICTORIES
• Dayton has six walk-off victories this season. Three of the six walk-off hits have come with two outs.
• March 18: Dayton 8, Canisius 7 (10 innings). C.J. Gillman led off the bottom of the 10th with a double and A.J. Ryan drove in the walk-off run on an infield single to cap off a four-run comeback win over Canisius (down 6-2 in seventh inning).
• March 24: Dayton 6, St. Bonaventure 3 (9 innings). Three walks loaded the bases for a two-out walk-off grand slam off the bat of Mel Skochdopole to give Dayton a 6-3 conference-opening win against St. Bonaventure. It was Skochdopole’s first and only homerun of the regular season. 
• March 30: Dayton 13, Saint Louis 12 (9 innings). With one out and the bases loaded, Josh Jeffery fouled out into a sacrifice fly down the left field line which allowed the runner at third base (Spencer Rohr) to tag and score the game-winning run. The walk-off sacrifice fly capped off a nine-run comeback against No. 30 Saint Louis to open the three-game series (down 10-1 in the fourth inning).  
• May 10: Dayton 8, UMass 7 (9 innings). Bobby Glover led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and advanced to third on a sac bunt and ground out. C.J. Gillman drove in Glover on a walk-off RBI single to right field with two outs.
• May 12: Dayton 2, UMass 1 (10 innings). A pinch-hitting Ian Hundley drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th to complete the sweep of UMass in the last home game of the season. Hundley hit a bases-loaded, two out single which scored Zach Stewart.
• May 24: Dayton 4, Saint Joseph’s 3 (13 innings). Josh Jeffery ended UD’s longest game of the season on a one-out RBI single to score Robby Sunderman, who reached on a leadoff double, in the bottom of the 13th inning. The three-hour, 30-minute game was the first of three wins to capture the A-10 tournament title.

LATE-INNING SURGE
• Dayton is outscoring opponents 69-45 in the eighth and ninth innings.
• When tied or trailing after eight innings, Dayton has 10 victories (10-28).
• The Flyers have never given up a lead after the eighth inning (20-0), and are 20-1 when leading after six innings.

GLOVER’S 21-GAME HITTING STREAK
• Senior centerfielder Bobby Glover started the season on a 21-game hitting streak, which was the longest of any player in the A-10 this season. 
• It was also the longest hitting streak of any Flyer since 2006, when Michael Massa had a hit in 20 consecutive games (3/31/06 – 4/30/06).
• During his 21-game hitting streak Glover recorded a .351 batting average, .426 on-base percentage, five homeruns, eight doubles, three triples and 19 RBI.

LINEUP CONSISTENCIES
• Senior centerfielder Bobby Glover the only Flyer to start all 59 game in the same position this season.
• Senior right fielder C.J. Gillman has started in 117 consecutive games in five different positions.
• Gillman, the league-leader in RBI, has hit cleanup in the batting order during 47 games.
• Senior shortstop Brian Blasik has started in 58 of 59 games this season.
• Two-time A-10 Rookie of the Week selection A.J. Ryan has batted fifth in the order 48 times.

PITCHING ACE: HAUSCHILD
• Senior Mike Hauschild has been the Friday starter for the Flyers all season with a team-high 87 strikeouts and seven wins through 15 starts.
• Dayton is 11-4 in games which Hauschild starts, including a 7-1 record when starting conference games.
• The Beavercreek, Ohio native is averaging 6 1/3 innings per appearances.
• Hauschild ranks second in career strikeouts (264) and third in career wins (23) at Dayton.
• Hauschild has pitched two complete games this season. In his last complete-game, he struck out eight in nine innings while guiding Dayton to an 11-5 win over Oakland (3/16).

STEWART LED DURING CONFERENCE PLAY
• Senior Zach Stewart led Dayton with a .378 batting average during conference play.
• Stewart has 31 hits and seven doubles as the starting left fielder in 21 of UD’s 24 conference games.
• He was also the only position starter without an error during conference play.

A.J. RYAN: TWO-TIME A-10 ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
• All-Rookie selection and freshman first baseman A.J. Ryan was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week on Feb. 27 and April 9.
• Ryan hit .556 with five RBI during his first week as a starter to earn his first citation on Feb. 27.
• The La Grange Park, Ill., native batted .348, including a double in four consecutive games and seven RBI to earn his second Rookie of the Week honor.
• Ryan was the 13th Flyer to be named an A-10 Rookie of the Week. A total of five active UD players have been named A-10 Rookie of the Week during their careers (Mel Skochdopole [4/4/11], Bryce Lahrman [3/1/10], Joe Gayda [5/3/10] and Burny Mitchem [4/28/08]).

MITCHEM TOPS CAREER STRIKEOUT LIST
• Senior right-handed pitcher Burny Mitchem is Dayton’s career strikeout leader, currently with 318.
• Mitchem became Dayton’s career strikeout leader on March 3 with 14 strikeouts in six innings at Tennessee Tech. Mitchem held TTU scoreless for all six innings of his relief appearance to allow the Flyers to rally and win, 13-9, in 11 innings.
• With four strikeouts against UMass on May 10, Mitchem became the first pitcher to ever reach 300 career strikeouts at Dayton.
• The Farmington, Mich., native also ranks second in career wins at Dayton with 24.

ONE-RUN GAMES
• UD is 13-9 in one-run games this season.
• Going into postseason play, Dayton has won five consecutive one-run games.
• The Flyers lost the first five one-run decisions of the season. 
• UD’s first one-run wins of the season came consecutively against Canisius and Oakland on the same day, March 18, and by the same score, 8-7.
• The last two one-run victories were in the last A-10 regular season series of the season at La Salle.

SCORING TRENDS
Dayton has…
• outscored opponents 35-21 in the eighth inning.
• a 20-1 record when leading after six innings.
• a 9-0 record when scoring 10 or more runs.
• a 12-0 record when holding opponents to two runs or fewer.

CATCHER BY COMMITTEE
• Catchers Josh Jeffery and Kuris Duggan have split time behind the plate this season.
• Duggan, a juco transfer from South Suburban (Ill.) College, has started 28 games. UD holds an 16-12 record in those games. 
• Jeffery, a senior, has started 30 games. UD holds a 14-16 record in those games.
• Head coach Tony Vittorio has not opted to use multiple catchers consistently since the 2006 season when Josh Burt started 33 games and William Benoit started 24.