Oct. 4, 2007

DAYTON, Ohio - Head Coach Tony Vittorio announced the 2008 schedule for the University of Dayton baseball team on Thursday.

The 56-game schedule includes 26 contests at Time Warner Cable Stadium, which has been the home to Flyer baseball since its completion at the start of the 2004 season. UD has a 43-23 record overall at home over the past three years including a 28-14 mark against Atlantic 10 opponents.

Dayton will begin the regular season with non-conference weekends at Campbell and High Point on North Carolina before heading to Clarksville, Tenn. for a three-game tournament at Austin Peay.

Then on March 14-16, the Flyers will co-host their first weekend games of the season along with Wright State in the Dayton Tournament. UD will play host to Eastern Michigan on Friday, Valparaiso on Saturday and Wright State on Sunday at Time Warner Cable Stadium.

In addition to its first three weekends of the season, Dayton will face Tennessee Tech in a two-game series on March 18 & 19 as well as split series against Butler, Bowling Green, Toledo and Wright State. The Flyers will also take on Ball State, IPFW, Miami (Ohio), Ohio and Youngstown State in single-game non-conference matchups.

"Our non-conference schedule will allow us to play likeable competition, which should give us a chance to set our lineup heading into A-10 games," Vittorio said. "I am looking forward to the opportunity of playing some home games in the early portion of the season to help prepare us for our goal of getting back to the A-10 Tournament in May."

The 27-game Atlantic 10 Conference schedule begins on Sat.-Mon., March 22-24 at home against rival Xavier. Along with a visit from the Musketeers, UD will host three-game A-10 series with Rhode Island (Mar. 28-30), Saint Joseph's (Apr. 11-13), Richmond (Apr. 25-27) and Duquesne (May 15-18). Dayton will take to the road to face St. Bonaventure (Apr. 4-6), George Washington (Apr. 18-20), Massachusetts (May 2-4) and Temple (May 9-11).

The top six teams in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference will qualify for the 2008 A-10 Baseball Championship, which is scheduled for May 21-24 at Campbell's Field in Camden, NJ. UD has taken part in the A-10 postseason four times under the direction of Vittorio with back-to-back trips in 2001 & 2002 as well as 2004 & 2005.

Dayton finished 21-33 overall and 9-18 in Atlantic 10 Conference play in 2007. The Flyers finished with their seventh 20-win season under the direction of eighth-year Head Coach Tony Vittorio. UD had 29 of its 54 games decided by two runs or less and went 11-18 in those games.