The Flyers got pitched to by powerful Maryland, and had no response of their own from youth on the mound. Dayton drops the final game of the weekend in North Carolina, 11-2.
CARY, N.C. — The song goes something like, ‘Nothing can be fina than to be in Carolina,’ unless you were associated with the University of Dayton baseball team the last three weekends.
The Flyers rode a bus into the Carolinas this weekend, just as they did the previous two weekends, to play three games and all three times they came home with one win and two losses.
On Sunday afternoon at the USA Baseball Training Complex the Flyers ran into their second straight left-handed buzz saw and lost to the University of Maryland, 11-2.
The Terps lived up to a motto pained on the back of their bus, ‘Fear the Turtle.’
They came to Cary with a 1-and-5 record and won three straight. On Friday they beat Notre Dame, the host of this Irish Classic, 4-3, scoring two runs in the ninth inning. On Saturday they beat North Carolina State, the No 6-ranked college baseball team in the nation, 9-2, and they bull whipped the Flyers Sunday.
Dayton won its Friday opener, 13-8, over UMass-Lowell, then was shut out, 7-0, by a lefthanded pitcher from William & Mary. Bodie Sheehan struck out 11 Flyers in 7 2/3 innings.
On Sunday the Flyers faced Tyler Blohm, a lefthander drafted last June in the 18th round by the Baltimore Orioles. But he opted to enroll at the University of Maryland and there he was honing his craft against the Flyers Sunday.
He pitched five innings and gave up two runs (one earned) and three hits while walking two and striking out six.
Maryland’s 11 runs, 15 hits and six stolen bases were all season-highs for the Terps.
For the second straight game UD’s starting pitcher was roughed and cuffed in the first inning. Tyler Jones, a freshman from Bellefontaine, gave up three runs and five hits in the first inning.
His luck, though, was all bad. The leadoff batter shot a solid single up the middle and the No. 2 hitter placed a perfect hit-and-run single through the shortstop hole.
Then there was a hit that caromed off pitcher Jones’s foot into left field and two bloop singles for three runs. He was one out away from escaping damage because all three runs scored with two outs.
He pitched a 1-2-3 second but when he walked the first two batters in the third his day was done. Junior Dom Golubiewski came on and retired the side quicker than anybody can say his last name — 1-2-3 to get out of the inning.
But the Terps scored one in the fourth and four in the fifth to put it away because the Flyers’ offense was dormant for the second straight day. Maryland scored eight runs on 10 hits against six UD relief pitchers over the last seven innings and the Flyers team earned run average for nine games is 9.09. They walked seven Terrapin batters.
In this game, seven UD pitchers put in a long day. They threw 175 pitches, 99 for strikes. Starter Tyler Jones overworked his arm for two innings — 56 pitches, 27 strikes, 29 balls. But that’s an inexperienced freshman getting his spikes broken in.
The Flyers came to South Carolina averaging 12 hits a game, but had four on Saturday aginst William & Mary and five on Sunday. And two of their hits came in the ninth inning against Maryland closer Mike Rescigno.
Rescigno was drafted last June in the 25th round by the San Francisco Giants but, like Brohm, chose to enroll at Maryland. Scouts gathered behind the screen to put radar guns on his fastball, which reached the mid-90s. But Robbie Doring and pinch-hitter Takahiro Yamada both singled before Rescigno got the last out to end the game.
After striking out only once in their Friday victory, the Flyers struck out 11 times Saturday and 10 times Sunday and drew only three walks.
For UD Coach Tony Vittorio it was second verse of “same as the first” as far as the pitching went the last two days.
“Our pitching got off to a bad start again and that has been a consistent problem for us,” he said. “We just haven’t been able to pitch to positive counts. We have to get better at that.”
Of his suddenly dormant offense, Vittorio said, ,“We have to give their pitching some credit. Those are good Big Ten pitchers.”
Asked what he could take out of the weekend, Vittorio said, “As I told the team after Sunday’s game, we have to get better at everything. We’ll have three days this week to work on things before our home opener Friday.”
The 3-and-6 Flyers open a four-game homestand Friday against Ohio University, play a doubleheader Saturday against Western Illinois and face crosstown rival Wright State Sunday, all at Spectrum Field adjacent to UD Arena.
For now though, forgive Vittoria if he doesn’t hum along when he hears James Taylor sing, ‘Goin’ to Carolina in my mind.’
On the other hand, at this juncture last season the Flyers were 1-and-8 and so far have made a two-win improvement.