Dayton baseball routs ROP

The Dayton High baseball team kept pace in what's turning out to be a wild Northern 3A race with a 13-0 win at Rite of Passage on Wednesday.

Dayton kept pace with Truckee and North Tahoe in the Northern 3A race as all three teams have two losses in league. Truckee also shocked first place Manogue, beating the Miners 3-1 on Tuesday. It was Manogue's first league loss since Dayton beat the Miners in 1997.

"It's going to be very interesting that's for sure," said Dayton coach Craig Miller about the race.

Matt Bowman continued his red hot hitting as he went 4-for-4 with two RBI, a double and a solo home run. Bowman is 10 for his last 10 and 15 for 19 over his last five games with three doubles, two triples, three homers and 17 RBI during that span.

Last week over four games, Bowman was 11-of-15 with two doubles, two triples, two homers and 15 RBI.

Dayton got a chance to use three pitchers. Andrew Rice started and threw two innings, winning pitcher Adam Diament threw two innings and Matt Hornback pitched an inning.

"That was our intention," Miller said. Miller said his three pitchers were actually below their intended pitch count. "But we wanted to make sure we got them all in the game," he said.

Rice also doubled twice, Diament, Justin Cross and Zane Walker all had a hit and an RBI and Travis Wood had two hits and an RBI.

Dayton (9-2, 6-2) will play at Battle Mountain on Friday and will return to league play with a doubleheader on Saturday at Spring Creek.

"They're a team that we have to beat," said Miller about ROP. "We can't take anybody lightly. You have to win these games."