RICHMOND, Va. – R.J. Wagner spun a gem to quiet Rhode Island's potent offense and propel No. 2 Dayton to a 3-1 win in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship Consolation Final Friday afternoon at The Diamond. The Flyers advance to Saturday's championship final.
 
UD (24-26) will face top seeded VCU in Saturday's final and would need to win two games against the undefeated Rams to capture the A-10 title. Dayton, which won it's only Atlantic 10 title in 2012, was the runner up in the 2019 A-10 Championship, losing to Fordham in a 12-inning affair. Impending inclement weather may force a delayed start to Saturday's final, which is currently scheduled for a noon first pitch.
 
Wagner went eight innings, allowing four hits and just one run, which came in the first inning. He struck out six on the way to his first win of the season. Slated to pitch the ninth inning as well, Wagner suffered an injury during warmups and was replaced. Justin Longbrake earned his second save of the year for two-thirds of an inning of hitless, scoreless work.
 
With Wagner's performance, Dayton only need two first-inning runs, courtesy of an RBI double by Riley Tirotta through the left side that scored Marcos Pujols, and allowed Tirotta to steal third and then score on a throwing error.  The Flyers added an insurance run in the top of the sixth on a Jay Curtis single that scored Chris Cabrera. But that run wasn't needed, as Rhody's lone score came in the bottom of the first when Xavier Vargas scored Austin White on a fielder's choice.
 
White went 2-for-4 to lead the third-seeded Rams (28-26-1), while Justin Cherry (1-1) took the loss for five innings of work with three runs (two earned) and five hits while also dealing a game-high eight strikeouts.
 
Benjamin Blackwell was the only Flyer to post two hits, with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate.