SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The University of Dayton baseball team closed out the season-opening weekend with a 4-2 loss to Wofford. The Flyers leave South Carolina with a 1-2 record this season, having won yesterday at Evansville and losing the season opener to USC Upstate on Friday. 

KEY MOMENT
Wofford took advantage of three walks to open the bottom of the eighth to load the bases for the Terriers. Mack Nathanson took advantage of the runners on base with a single down the left field line, driving in two runs and giving Wofford a 3-1 lead. The Terriers would tack on one more tally before the final frame and Dayton was unable to overcome the deficit.
 
COACH'S CORNER
"There were a lot of positive from this weekend. I thought we played pretty good defense and the hitters did a great job this entire trip. Today was just one of those days where you're hitting a lot of balls hard, but they're just hit right at people, which is just a part of the game of baseball. There was so much to like about what we saw (from this weekend's play). The biggest thing for us going forward will be throwing more strikes. We can't allow free passes when the game gets tight, so if we can eliminate those, I think everything is going to fall into place real well for us."
-Head coach Jayson King on Dayton's performance this weekend
 
KEY STATS
- Riley Tirotta went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, including a double that led to the then-tying score in the bottom of the seventh.
- Takahiro Yamada knocked in both runs at the plate for the Flyers, including a single to drive home Tirotta in the seventh and a sac fly to send Brandon Smith across home in the ninth to draw Dayton back within two runs. Yamada is batting .500 this weekend with four hits.
- Along with Tirotta, Mitchell Garrity was the other Flyer hitter to record a multi-hit game, including a double off the wall in the fourth.
-Senior Peter Rozman threw four strong innings for Dayton as the team's starting pitcher. Rozman allowed just one run off three hits and only issued one free pass to Wofford hitters.
-Aaron Ernst made his Flyer debut in the bottom of the eighth as a relief pitcher.

SCORING BREAKDOWN
Bottom 4th:
Wofford's Mack Nathanson hit a home run to left-center field to lead of the bottom half of the inning and give the Terriers a 1-0 lead.

Top 7th:
Freshman Riley Tirotta hit a double off the top of the fence in left-center field, which was immediately followed by a single from sophomore Takahiro Yamada to tie up the game at 1-1.

Bottom 8th:
The Terriers drew three straight walks to open the bottom of the eighth and Nathanson made the Flyers pay with a line drive single down the left field line. Max McDougald would hit a double two batters later and score Nathanson from first.

UP NEXT:
Next up for Dayton will be a weekend series against High Point from Feb. 23-25. The Panthers are 0-2 after dropping a pair of games to James Madison this weekend.