Dayton loses A-10 championship on bases-loaded walk in 12th

No. 4 seed Fordham, which hosted the tournament, beat No. 3 seed Dayton 4-3. Dayton’s Cole Pletka, the seventh pitcher to take the mound for the Flyers, loaded the bases with one out and then got a strikeout but threw a ball to Justin Bardwell on a 3-2 count to score Jason Coules with the winning run.

Fordham (38-22) won its second A-10 tournament championship and first since 1998. Dayton finished the season 32-26-1. It was seeking its second A-10 tournament title and first since 2012. The Flyers would have had to beat Fordham again if they had won the first game Satur

Dayton overcame a 3-0 deficit to tie the game with three runs in the final three innings.

In the seventh, Takahiro Yamada scored on a throwing error to get Dayton on the board, and Alex Brickman drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to cut Fordham’s lead to 3-2. With two outs in the ninth, Brickman hit a solo home run to tie the game. It was his seventh home run of the season.

In extra innings, Dayton threatened once, getting runners to the corners with two outs in the 11th before a groundout to third ending the inning.

Dayton survived an elimination game Friday night, beating No. 2 seed Davidson 5-2. Senior Tyler Henry, of Middletown, struck out out a career-high 11 batters in 7 2/3 innings.

“The first three years, everything we went through, being out here with the chance to win the ‘ship is the greatest thing ever,” Henry said in a Twitter video.

» RELATED: Dayton seeks first title since 2012

Hunter Wolfe, who started the tournament opener Wednesday against Rhode Island, earned the save against Davidson with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless work.

Brickman led the offense with two hits and was one of five players with an RBI. His single in the fifth scored Benjamin Blackwell and gave Dayton a 2-1 lead. Mitchell Garrity, Michael Cleary, Eddie Pursinger and Yamada also drove in runs.