WILMINGTON, N.C. – The University of Dayton baseball team will open the 2020 season on Friday at 12 p.m. by travelling to Wilmington, N.C. to take on Bryant.

 Dayton will take on UNCW on Friday at 4 p.m. The Flyers will face Bryant again on Saturday at 12 p.m. before finishing the weekend on Sunday at 10 a.m. against UNCW.

The program will look to build off of a successful 2019 that saw Dayton finish 32-26-1 and make the trip to the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time since 2014. The Flyers advanced to the title game before falling to Fordham in extra innings.

WEEKEND SCOUTING REPORT
Head Coach Jayson King enters his third season at the helm of Dayton.

"We're excited to get started," King said. "We're playing two really good teams so I think we'll have a really good barometer of where we're at right out of the gate."

King said he recognizes the quality of the programs the Flyers will face this weekend.

"UNC Wilmington and Bryant are two mid-majors that have done really well and we're striving towards being one of those schools," King said.

TAKING A LOOK AT BRYANT
The Flyers will start with a matchup with Bryant. The Bulldogs finished 40-20 in 2019 and also fought their way to the conference title game before falling to Central Connecticut. This season Bryant was selected to finish second in the Northeast Conference in 2020.

As a team, the Bulldogs hit .311 and tallied 81 home runs offensively. Seniors Gaby Cruz and James Ciliento headline the returners offensively. Cruz hit .354 on the year while the pair combined for 19 home runs and 94 runs batted in.

Bryant's pitching staff finished with a 3.79 earned run average in part behind junior Tyler Mattison. Mattison totaled a 9-1 record in 15 starts with a 3.47 ERA while striking out 67 batters in 80.1 innings.

TAKING A LOOK AT UNCW
The Seahawks enter the season as the defending Colonial Athletic Association champions after finishing 32-31 in 2019. UNCW lost the first two games of the NCAA Tournament in the Chapel Hill region to the host North Carolina and then to Tennessee. That performance earned them the nod as the favorite in the CAA Preseason Poll.

Cole Weiss and Noah Bridges were the two position players representing the Seahawks on the Preseason All-Conference Team. Weiss finished with a .305 average and 49 runs batted in while Bridges hit .263 with 17 stolen bases in 2019.

Zarion Sharpe will get the nod in the first game for UNCW. The junior went 3-3 starting 13 games for the Seahawks throwing 57.2 innings and notching 61 strikeouts. Sharpe joins Landen Roupp as key returners on the hill. Roupp finished 6-3 with a 3.47 ERA over 80.1 innings for UNCW tallying 90 strikeouts on the year.

PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday at 12 p.m.- Game 1 vs. Bryant: Hunter Wolfe (0-0) vs. Tyler Mattison (0-0)
Friday at 4 p.m.- Game 2 @ UNCW: Ben Olson (0-0) vs. Zarion Sharpe (0-0)
Saturday at 12 p.m.- Game 3 vs. Bryant: Cole Pletka (0-0) vs. Will Truel (0-0)
Sunday at 10 a.m.- Game 4 @ UNCW: Dylan Keller (0-0) vs. Luke Gesell (0-0)

THE NONCONFERENCE SLATE
The Flyers will take on four 2019 NCAA Tournament teams in their nonconference schedule, including two out of the Big Ten in Illinois and Ohio State.

Those two headline the slate with Illinois coming off a season that put them as the two seed in the Oxford Regional. The Flyers will take on the Fighting Illini at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio on March 14, at 4 p.m.

Ohio State entering the season as the defending Big Ten Champions. The Buckeyes will host the Flyers on April 15 at 6:35 p.m.

INSIDE THE ATLANTIC 10
Dayton was picked to finish third in the 2020 Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll receiving three first place votes in the process.

"The conference is strong," King said. "There are no weekends off. You have to show up to play and if you don't you'll get beat and I think that's the sign of a good conference."

The 24-game conference schedule includes the preseason favorites in VCU. The Flyers host the Rams for the last home series of the 2020 season from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 3.

VCU will also host the top seven finishers in the conference for the 2020 Atlantic 10 Championship from May 20-23.

THE ROTATION
"I think our pitching staff is shaping up to be strong," King said. "Our weekend rotation has a chance to be as good as anybody's and I think we're going to have two good midweek starters and a good bullpen to match."

Hunter Wolfe will lead the pitching staff into the 2020 season after leading the conference in wins the year prior with nine. The senior finished the season 9-4 in 14 starts, throwing 90 innings with a 3.70 earned run average.

Coach King said he will be looking at Wolfe to be a force in 2020.

"He's an absolute bulldog, a captain, and a great leader so he's the one who gets it all started for the pitching staff."

Joining him will be Ben Olson, who pitched at Bradley University in 2019. Olson went 1-2 in 12 appearances for the Braves. Over 23.1 innings Olson posted a 4.63 earned run average, striking out 26 on the year.

"He's kind of 1A," King said. "He's pitching the second game right out of the gate. When you can take a guy and plug him right into that spot I think it does wonders for your rotation."

THE LINEUP
Seven position players who started more than 30 games return from the 2019 season to help stabilize the roster offensively.

"I think the lineup is going to be stern one through nine," King said. "There's a lot of depth. There are some guys that will start on the bench that can do some really good things."

One returner is junior Riley Tirotta. Tirotta hit .260 for the Flyers in 2019, leading the team with 59 hits and tying for the team lead in stolen bases with 18.

"I think Riley Tirotta is positioned to have a great season this year and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of things he can do," King said. "He's had a very good preseason and I think he's primed and ready to have a breakout year."

Mariano Ricciardi is a new face to watch out for offensively after spending the first portion of his collegiate career at Cypress C.C. In 40 games last year for the Chargers, Ricciardi hit .324 and drove in 19 runs.

"He brings a spark to the field every day and especially on gameday," Coach King said. "So he's going to bring what he brings physically to the table but he's also going to bring those intangibles that winning teams have."