Dayton falls in semifinals of A-10 baseball tournament

Flyers knock out the top two seeds before losing to George Mason

The Dayton Flyers stayed alive in the Atlantic 10 Conference baseball tournament with two victories Thursday at The Diamond in Richmond, Va., but were eliminated with a 3-2 loss to No. 6 seed George Mason in the semifinals Friday.

Dayton (26-34), the No. 3 seed, beat No. 2 Davidson 15-4 on Thursday afternoon and then beat No. 1 seed Saint Joseph’s 15-10 in the evening. With those victories, the Flyers eliminated both of the teams seeded ahead of them. They were 1-2 against both teams in the regular season.

Marcos Pujols, who was named to the A-10 second team earlier in the week, hit one home run in the first game and two in the second game.

Pujols has 17 home runs this season, the third most in a single season in UD history, and 44 in his career. He’s one away from tying the school record set by Brooks Vogel, who played for Dayton from 1998-2001.

Junior Carlos Castillo hit two home runs in the victory against Davidson.

Dayton opened the tournament with a 5-4 loss to No. 6 seed George Mason on Tuesday and lost to the Patriots again in an elimination game. The Flyers rallied from a 3-0 deficit with two runs in the eighth and had runners at second and third with two outs in the ninth when the game ended on a called strike three.

No. 4 seed Saint Louis (33-21) will play George Mason (32-24) in the A-10 championship game at noon Saturday. George Mason will have to beat Saint Louis twice. Saint Louis beat George Mason 6-5 in the first semifinal game Friday.

About the Author