Dayton baseball falls to Fordham in A-10 tourney

Rams score in each of last three innings to take control.

The Dayton Flyers lost 4-2 to Fordham in the third round of the Atlantic 10 Conference baseball tournament Friday and will have to win three straight games to claim the title at Fordham’s Houlihan Park in Bronx, N.Y.

Nick LaBella led the Rams with three RBIs. Each team had six hits. The Flyers left six men on base. R.J. Wagner started for the Flyers and allowed two earned runs on two hits in six innings. He struck out eight.

No. 3 seed Dayton (31-251) played No. 2 seed Davidson at 7 p.m. Friday in an elimination game. If the Flyers won that game, they will play No. 4 seed Fordham (37-22) again at noon today and will have to win that game and beat Fordham again in a second game this afternoon to win the championship. Fordham is 3-1 against Dayton this season.

Fordham took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI double by LaBella.

Dayton took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Connor Wilson reached on a fielder’s choice groundout to shortstop and Riley Tirotta and Jay Curtis scored on a throwing error by the shortstop.

Fordham tied the game at 2-2 on a sacrifice bunt in the seventh by LaBella and took the lead on an RBI double by Jason Coules in the eighth. The Rams added an insurance run in the ninth on an RBI single by LaBella.

Dayton went 2-0 on the first two days of the tournament, beating No. 6 seed Rhode Island 3-2 on Wednesday and No. 2 seed Davidson 7-3 on Thursday. Contact this reporter at 937244-7400 or email David. Jablonski@coxinc.com.