“One guy kind of got the news in the locker room,” senior pitcher Tyler Jones said, “and it spread like that. Really the air just kind of went out of the balloon. Then coach (Jayson King) called us together, and there were a lot of tears. We weren’t sure at that point. There were a lot of unknowns. It was an emotional time, for sure. You never know when you’re going to see those guys again.”
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The end of the season could have meant the end for Jones, a Bellefontaine High School graduate, but the NCAA's decision to grant all spring athletes — not just seniors — an extra year of eligibility gives him the option of returning next season.
“I’d love to come back,” said Jones, who made five relief appearances this season. “UD is a special place, and they say you can only do this college thing once and to put off the real world as long as possible.”
Jones, who interned with U.S. Represenative Mike Turner in Washington, D.C., last summer, will complete a double major in political science and international studies this spring and will have to get into graduate school for public administration to come back for a fifth year. He also needs to make sure he can afford another year of school. UD baseball players earn partial scholarships.
Many of his teammates will have to make the same decision. Senior first baseman Alex Brickman, who led the team with 16 RBIs, is one who plans to return.
“Dayton really has a special place in my heart,” Brickman said. “I transferred in as a junior. Coach King gave me a chance. The school, the university, basically everything has grown on me. I absolutely love it here.”
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Brickman is from Andover, Mass. Like Jones, he returned home soon after the season was cancelled. Senior pitcher Hunter Wolfe is spending his quarantine life at home in Clay City, Ind. He still has credits to finish for his bachelor’s degree, so it was easy for him to decide to come back next season.
There were a few anxious moments in recent weeks because the players weren’t sure if the NCAA would give them the extra year.
“Initially, we thought for sure we were going to get the extra year,” said Wolfe, who was 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA in four starts. “Then as things kind of progressed, it seemed like maybe some of the bigger conferences were leaning against it.”
There was relief Monday when the NCAA made its decision official. For the Flyers, there will be unfinished business when baseball returns. The team was 6-8 when the season ended, but it had high hopes of contending in the Atlantic 10 Conference. It would have played its A-10 opener March 20.
A season ago, Dayton finished 32-26-1, the most victories for the program since 2011, and 16-8 in the A-10. It reached the A-10 championship game before losing 4-3 to Fordham in 12 innings. It would have had to beat Fordham twice to win the tournament. Dayton was picked to finish third behind VCU and Fordham in the preseason poll this year.
Now the Flyers will never know what might have been.
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“We thought we had a very strong ballclub,” Jones said. “We came out of the gate strong. Then we slipped up a little bit after that strong start, but we really thought we were getting things going in the right direction, and our goal of winning the A-10 was still very much alive.”
That dream died or was postponed until next season. Meanwhile life goes on for all the players without any sports at all to watch. No one alive has dealt with this reality, even if the loss of sports seems like a small thing compared to the bigger issues caused by the pandemic.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Jones said. “You just miss the little things: like the conversations you have while stretching or playing catch with your everyday throwing partner. I’d love to go on a 14-hour bus ride down to Florida right now. There are things you didn’t know you were going to miss, which kind of makes the potential of next year even that much more sweeter. You say you never realize how much you’re going to miss it. You always hear that from every senior class at the end of the season: Don’t take it for granted. Now we’ve kind of had this taken away, so the guys who thought it was over, that senior class, is going to have a great understanding of how much this final year will mean.”
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