DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team hosts its second Atlantic 10 series of the season this weekend, welcoming George Mason to the Gem City for a three-game set beginning Friday, April 12 at 3 p.m.
 
Friday's game will be streamed on ESPN+ with veteran broadcaster Alex Mikos on play-by-play and Joe Sullivan serving as analyst.
 
A-10 SHOWDOWN
Dayton took 2-of-3 from George Mason during the regular season last year but fell to the Patriots when it mattered most - in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
 
Over the last three regular season matchups (2023, 2021 and 2019), the FlyBoys have won each series. In addition to last year's series victory, UD won 3-of-4 in Dayton in 2021, as well as 2-of-3 in Fairfax, Va. in 2019.
 
In the last five meetings between the Flyers and Patriots, including the postseason, the two teams have played four one-run games.
 
THE HITS KEEP COMING
The FlyBoys' offense has been rolling of late and continued the trend with a 12-7 win over Akron on Tuesday. The 15-hit performance by UD against the Zips made it four consecutive and 8-of-10 games with double-digit hits.
 
Dayton has a team slash line of .298/.478/.421 on the season, boasting an OPS of .899. With 23 games left on the schedule, the Flyers need just 10 more steals as a team to enter into the Top 10 in program laurels. Last season the FlyBoys stole 84 bases, good for eighth all-time, and currently have 71.
 
BOMBS AWAY!
After not homering in the first two games of the weekend series at St. Bonaventure, the FlyBoys have now registered multi-homer games in each of their last two contests.
 
Junior David Pedanou homered for the second time this season in UD's win over Akron, while sophomore Eddie Yamin IV hit his team-leading seventh long ball in the same game.
 
In Dayton's drubbing of St. Bonaventure in the series finale on Sunday, graduate student Nolan Watson swatted two homers himself.
 
WATSON NAMED A-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Graduate student Nolan Watson was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week on Monday, April 8, after helping the Flyers to a 2-1 weekend at St. Bonaventure.
 
Watson slashed .545/1.273/.643 for the weekend, hitting two doubles and two homers, scoring eight runs, and driving in seven more.
 
The catcher started all three games behind the plate for the Flyers this weekend, including both games of a Sunday doubleheader. Watson had hits in all three games, including his second career two-homer game.
 
BACK TO DAYAIR
The FlyBoys return to DayAir Ballpark for a midweek matchup with Eastern Kentucky Tuesday, April 23. UD has set a new attendance record each of the last two seasons when moving its home field to downtown Dayton, beating Ohio State in 2022 in front of 3,859, and taking down cross-town rival Wright State last season in front of 6,743.
 
SCOUTING THE PATRIOTS
George Mason has a 15-15 record on the 2024 campaign with a 3-3 mark in the Atlantic 10 coming into the weekend. The Patriots lost their A-10-opening series at Richmond before taking 2-of-3 at home against George Washington last weekend.
 
GMU is hitting .282 as a team on the season, reaching base at a .385 clip and slugging 29 homers on the campaign. Jordan Smith is the only full-time player with a batting average over .300, turning in an impressive .390 mark. One of the biggest weapons in the lineup is speedster South Trimble, who leads the Atlantic 10 with 22 steals on the season and has only been caught stealing once.
 
As a team, George Mason has a 7.45 ERA on the season, striking out 246 batters while walking 148. Opponents are hitting .288 against the Patriots this season. The trio of Nick Martins, Konnor Eaton and Ryan Peterson are scheduled to start this weekend, turning in ERAs of 4.50, 4.91 and 4.91 on the year, respectively.