May 8, 2008

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Seventh-place Dayton heads east to face fifth-place Temple in a critical A-10 weekend series for both sides in the race to make the six-team field at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship. The Flyers and Owls will meet Friday (3 p.m. ET), Saturday (1 p.m. ET) and Sunday (1 p.m. ET) in games that can be followed with Gametracker at www.DaytonFlyers.com.

UD (28-21, 10-11 A-10) and TU (21-25, 12-9 A-10) are separated by just two games in a tightly-packed Atlantic 10 standings. The Flyers also enter the weekend only four games back of a three-way tie for first place and will play their final series of the season against Duquesne which is involved in that trio. Dayton also enters this weekend only one game shy of St. Bonaventure for the sixth and final berth in the A-10 postseason.

The Flyers also enter the weekend just two wins shy of its fifth 30-win season in the 103-year history of the program. All four of the previous 30-win campaigns have come under the direction of current head coach Tony Vittorio and resulted in trips to the A-10 Championship. No team in the 28-year history of the Atlantic 10 Championship has been excluded from A-10 postseason play when winning at least 30 regular season games. Dayton has already clinched its fifth winning season under Vittorio and 34th in school history. Overall, UD has posted a 1,049-1,256-12 (.455) record, but have won 246 of 490 (.502) games played over the past nine seasons in the Vittorio era.

Dayton will look to get off to a strong start by sending senior Lucas Farden to the mound on Friday. The righthander has thrown complete-game victories in two of the past three series openers to earn road victories at George Washington and Massachusetts. Overall this season, Farden is 4-6 with two saves and a 3.27 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 71.2 innings pitched while holding the opposition to a .239 batting average against him. Since moving into a starting role, he is 2-1 with with a 2.91 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 34.0 innings pitched.

Cole Tyrell will also look to continue his hot streak at the plate as he enters the series with the Owls on a 15-game hitting streak. He has posted seven multi-hit performances while scoring 16 runs during the stretch.