University of Dayton Athletics

Experience: 18th Season at Dayton
Alma Mater: Hanover College '88

Under head coach Tony Vittorio’s leadership, University of Dayton baseball has elevated into a program which consistently competes for conference titles and fields players whom represent Flyer baseball at the professional level.

Since arriving in 2000, Vittorio oversaw the construction of the new Time Warner Cable Stadium, won the program’s first conference title, coached eight MLB Draft picks – including two major-league-level pitchers – and made eight conference postseason appearances. Vittorio was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2009 after guiding Dayton to the Atlantic 10 regular season title with a program-high 38 wins.

The 2012 season saw the Flyers win their first Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship.  With a 31-30 record overall and a 17-7 conference mark, Vittorio’s squad led the nation in steals with 164 on the year.  The Flyers also added to their major league talent pool with the drafting of Michael Hauschild by the Houston Astros.  Four other Dayton baseball players signed professional contracts as well.  The Flyers advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, traveling to College Station, Texas to compete in the regional against Texas A&M, Ole Miss and TCU.

In 2011, the Flyers finished in third-place in the A-10, had two first-team all-conference players (SP Burny Mitchem, SS Brian Blasik) and the highest MLB Draft pick in program history (Cameron Hobson, 11th round). Dayton’s pitching staff set program records for strikeouts (429), fewest walks allowed (128), and team ERA in the modern era (3.94). With a rejuvenated base-running philosophy, the Flyers also burned up the base paths with a program-record 121 stolen bases to lead the conference.

In the 2011 national rankings Dayton placed second in walks allowed per nine innings (2.18) and seventh in stolen bases (121).

Vittorio surpassed the 500 career win mark during a historic 2009 campaign in which the team also broke a number of long-standing UD records including wins (38), batting average (.332), hits (665), runs scored (448) and home runs (77). His 500th career victory came on April 24, 2009 in a 5-3 come-from-behind win at Fordham.

Despite the apparent evidence of recent success, Vittorio would give many reasons why those numbers represent a starting point rather than a destination for a program that had only one winning season in the decade prior to his arrival.

“The goal of our program is to maintain a championship-level program,” Vittorio said. “Our expectations are to win championships and to compete at the national level.”

Vittorio resides in Kettering with his wife Heather and their daughter Taylor Reann and son Nic.

Humble and Youthful Beginnings
After one year as a graduate assistant at Indiana University, Vittorio’s first head coaching experience came in 1990 as a 24-year-old at Lincoln Trail Community College in Robinson, Ill. The season before he arrived, the Statesmen had a 2-48 record. But Vittorio built the program up to win 144 games in his four seasons at Lincoln Trail (1991-94), including a 45-28 record his final year. He mentored two MLB draftees and saw 22 players advance to four-year college teams at Lincoln Trail.

He then spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky before beginning the revival of then-NCAA Division II Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). Again Vittorio succeeded in a rebuilding role by winning 80 games in three seasons after inheriting a team which went 9-41 before he arrived in the fall of 1996.

Dayton Career Begins
The University of Dayton hired Vittorio in the fall 1999 and he coached his first NCAA Division I season in the spring of 2000. Former Director of Athletics Ted Kissel hired Vittorio, while current AD Tim Wabler was on the hiring committee as an Associate Director of Athletics.

Setting Dayton Back On Winning Track
In 2001, Vittorio guided Dayton to its first winning season in three years, setting a then-school record of 32 wins, while leading Dayton to a second-place regular season finish and the first berth in post-season play since joining the A-10 in 1996.

Dayton has had eight 30-win seasons since Vittorio arrived in 2000.

Championship Season
Vittorio was named the 2009 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year after guiding Dayton to the program’s first conference title as the A-10 regular season champions. The 2009 squad set a program record for wins in a season with a 38-19 record and 21-6 record in conference play. Vittorio's squad broke a number of other long-standing UD records: batting average (.332), hits (665), at-bats (2,005), runs scored (448), home runs (77) and strikeouts (370). Dayton also became just the second team in A-10 history to reach over 20 wins during conference play.

Left-handed pitcher Cameron Hobson was named the conference Rookie of the Year and a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American after posting a 7-1 record, 3.43 ERA and a then-school record of 83 strikeouts. Three players were named first-team all-conference (C Scott Dunwoody, 3B Jimmy Roesinger; OF Jacob Spaeth) and two were named second-team all-conference (LHP Hobson; OF Max Navalinski).
 
Coaching Tree
Three former assistant coaches under Vittorio have gone on to be head coaches including Billy Gernon at Western Michigan, who was an assistant for Vittorio at IPFW. Former Dayton assistant Brian Harrison left the program after the 2010 season to take the reins at Division III Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Former Lincoln Trail assistant Tony Kestranek took over the program after Vittorio’s departure and has since retired from coaching.

Assistant coaches in Vittorio’s tree include Jake Spaeth, a former UD assistant, now at Madison College. Former Dayton players Aaron Hepner, Jimmy Roesinger and C.J. Gillman have also entered the coaching profession. Hepner is an assistant at Wayne State, while Roesinger and Gillman are both assistants at the Air Force Academy. Jared Broughton, a 2013 graduate, is now an assistant coach at Piedmont College. Fellow 2013 grad Parker Schrage is an assistant with Spaeth at Madison College as well.

Major-League Talent 
Eight of the 13 MLB draftees in the 110-year history of Dayton baseball have been under Vittorio’s watch. Two of those players – Jerry Blevins ’04 and Craig Stammen ’05 – reached the major-league level. Blevins was drafted in the 17th-round by the Chicago Cubs in 2004 and debuted in the show on Sept. 16, 2007 with the Oakland Athletics. Stammen was drafted in the 12th round by the Washington Nationals in 2005 and made his major league debut on May 21, 2009.

Cameron Hobson became Dayton’s highest draft pick in program history in 2011 after being selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 11th round of the MLB First Year Player Draft. The left-handed pitcher left Dayton owning the program’s career strikeout record (256) with one year of eligibility remaining.

Community Servant
The ball field is not the only place that Vittorio expects his student-athletes to excel. Dayton baseball participates in Dayton Memorial Church’s K.I.N.D. (Kids In New Directions), Building Bridges, Friends of Jaclyn, the North Dayton Stingrays, as well as taking part in UD’s Christmas on Campus.

He is also involved with the Building Bridges baseball clinic which helps at-risk youth between the ages of nine and 18 build character and self-esteem. Through this organization, Vittorio has established the ‘For The Good of Gloves’ effort which provides kids at Building Bridges with baseball gloves of their own.

Indiana Roots
A native of Indianapolis, Vittorio graduated from Hanover (Ind.) College in 1988 with a double major in both business administration and physical education. He went on to earn his master's degree in sports management from the University of Kentucky in 1997. At Hanover, Vittorio was a four-year letterwinner as a middle infielder and was selected into the American College Hall of Fame at the conclusion of his collegiate career. Vittorio graduated from Southport High School in Indianapolis. 

Vittorio Year-by-Year Record