Dayton baseball is back on the road this weekend for a three-game series with USC Upstate. This will be the second time the two teams have played this season, as they squared off in the 2018 season opener, which the Spartans came away victorious by a 10-8 margin. Dayton enters the game with a 5-11 record, while USC Upstate is 11-10-1 this season.

SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS
Game 1: Friday, March 23 at 6 p.m.
RHP Brandon Smith (1-1, 4.85 ERA) vs. RHP Blake Whitney (3-0, 1.55 ERA)

Game 2: Saturday, March 24 at 2 p.m.
RHP Austin Cline (1-4, 7.94 ERA) vs. RHP Kevin Hickey (0-0, 2.70 ERA)

Game 3: Sunday, March 25 at 1 p.m.
LHP Peter Rozman (0-0, 4.32 ERA) vs. RHP Jordan Marks (0-2, 5.84 ERA)

ABOUT DAYTON (5-11)

• Pat Meehan hit a leadoff home run against Friday's probable starter Blake Whitney the first time these two teams played on February 16.
• Meehan leads the team in several offensive categories including runs, hits (tied), doubles and home runs.
• Meehan also has an RBI in each of the last three games, while teammate Connor Echols has driven home a run in each of the last two games.
• Brandon Smith leads the team with 15 runs batted in and drove home two runners on Wednesday against Bowling Green with a double in the left-center gap that rolled all the way to the wall.
• Mitchell Garrity swiped two stolen bases against Bowling Green on Wednesday to bring his team-high total to 10 on 11 attempts.
• Meehan and Riley Tirotta rank second on the team in stolen bases with five apiece
• Austin Cline, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week and Saturday's probable pitcher, threw a complete game shutout in his last start on March 17 against Ball State. Cline allowed just three hits and struck out nine en route to picking up his first win on the mound this season.
• Justin Longbrake has a team-best ERA of 3.55 coming out of the bullpen this season with seven appearances.

ABOUT USC UPSTATE (11-10-1)

• Blake Whitney, Friday's probable pitcher, is the same pitcher that started the game in the season opener against Dayton for USC Upstate. Whitney finished that game with a line of 4.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 5 K.
• Whitney is coming off and 8.0 inning, nine-strikeout gem in his last outing on March 16 against Ohio.
• Charlie Carpenter, a draft pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2017 who elected to come back to school, is the team's top hitter with a .395 batting average and 10 extra base hits.
• Stealing bases isn't typically in the USC Upstate's game plan, as the Spartans have just 10 stolen bases this season as a team on 12 attempts.
• Aside from Carpenter, Kyler Gensler (.321) and Toran Shahidi (.311) are the other Spartans with batting averages over the .300 mark this season.
• USC Upstate has hit five home runs as a team this season and Russel Schwertfeger leads the Spartans with two.