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University of Dayton head coach Tony Vittorio has solidified himself as one of the baseball program's greatest managers since he took over beginning with the 2000 season. This claim is backed by a resume that includes four 30-win seasons including a school record 36 victories in 2005 and UD's only four trips to the Atlantic 10 Championship. However, Vittorio (422-388, 197-190 at UD) 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. "If you strive for excellence everyday, you might find perfection along the way," Vittorio said. In 2006, Vittorio took the Flyers to the Atlantic 10 Championships for the second consecutive season and won 33 games including a program best 18 in Atlantic 10 Conference play to finish third in the 14-team A-10. Not only did the UD pitching staff record a school-record 343 strikeouts, but the offense used its speed to record the second most doubles (115), fourth most stolen bases (75) and fifth most triples (18) in program history. He also saw a Flyer selected for the third time in three seasons in the MLB Draft. Vittorio led Dayton to a program record 596 hits in 2005 while ranking second in runs scored (397) and at bats (1,932), third in batting average (.308) and RBI (358). The 2005 Flyers also had a solid pitching staff with 314 strkeouts (third most in school history) and a 4.41 team ERA (fifth best). UD also won two of three games against #19 Notre Dame on Feb. 26 & 27 in Mesa, AZ at HoHoKam Park, the Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs. It marked the highest ranked team ever defeated by the Flyers in school history. But as bright as the future appears for Vittorio's Flyers, his past still stands at the top of UD's record books. In 2002, UD shattered record after record, boasting school-highs in strikeouts (332) while winning 32 games, as well as an April 16 win over IPFW that gave Vittorio his 300th career victory. His ability to mold professional-caliber players was also validated during the year, with four members of the '02 squad going on to play some type of professional ball. The quartet of players moving on to the next level brought his total to five players in three years. A year earlier, Vittorio guided Dayton to its first winning season in three years, setting a then single season school record for victories with 32, while leading Dayton to its first berth in post-season play since joining the A-10 in 1996. The 32-wins in 2001 was just the second winning season in three years, and gave promise to a program that had eclipsed the .500 mark just one time during the 1990s. In his first year at Dayton, Vittorio guided the Flyers to a 23-32 season with a 10-11 record in conference play, paving the way for the record breaking 2001 campaign. This transformation of Dayton's program has come as no surprise. From the start of his 12-year coaching career as an assistant at Indiana University, Vittorio has been a builder. His first reconstruction was at Lincoln Trail Community College, a junior college in Robinson, IL. Taking over a program that suffered through a 2-48 season before he arrived, Vittorio guided LTCC to 145 wins from 1990 through 1994, including a 45-28 record his final year. While coaching the Statesmen, he mentored two MLB draftees and saw 22 players advance to four-year college teams. He then spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky before beginning the revival of Division II IPFW, a team that was 9-41 before he arrived in the fall of 1996. Vittorio engineered his rebuilding process again and posted a 24-23 mark his first season and an impressive 30-17 record in 1998. Vittorio's Mastodons won 80 games in his three years in Fort Wayne, bringing his then seven-year career head coaching record to 224-198. In 2000, coach Vittorio made the move to UD, bringing with him head assistant Todd Linklater. A native of Indianapolis, Vittorio graduated from Hanover (IN) 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 resides in Kettering with his wife Heather and their daughter Taylor Reann and son Nic. Tony Vittorio's Career Record
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