Dayton Flyers fall to VCU in Atlantic 10 baseball championship

The Dayton Flyers led 3-0 after two innings but lost 7-6 to top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth on the final day of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament Saturday at The Diamond in Richmond, Va.

Dayton, the No. 2 seed, needed to win two games Saturday to claim the championship and the league’s NCAA tournament berth. VCU (37-14) ended Dayton’s dreams by winning the first game, extending its program-record winning streak to 21 games.

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VCU won its second A-10 tournament championship. It also won the title in 2015. Dayton finished the season with a record of 24-27.

Dayton’s early lead vanished when VCU scored a run in the third and five in the fourth. The Flyers cut into the deficit with runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh. They had the tying run at third with two outs in the eighth, but a fly ball to left ended that threat.

Riley Tirotta went 3-for-4 to lead the Dayton offense. Mariano Ricciardi, Alex Brickman and Eddie Pursinger each had two hits.

Dayton advanced to the championship game by beating No. 3 seed Rhode Island 3-1 on Friday. That followed an 8-2 loss to Rhode Island and an 11-4 victory against Saint Joseph’s on Thursday.

This was the second straight time Dayton reached the final day of the tournament. In 2019, it needed to beat Fordham twice on the final day but lost the first game 4-3 to Fordham in 12 innings.