The Dayton High baseball team is one win away from achieving a goal that has been a long time in coming - advancing to the NIAA 3A State Championships.
Dayton defeated North Tahoe 12-8 on Thursday at home in its Northern 3A playoff opener. The Dust Devils can clinch a spot in the state tournament with a win at 3 p.m. today at Dayton. If North Tahoe wins, that would force a third game today for the right to advance to the state event.
Freshman Travis Wood and Tom O'Brien came through with home runs, Tim Torres went 3-for-3, Matt Bowman was solid again and Adam Diament pitched six strong innings for the win for the Dust Devils.Dayton jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on the strength of O'Brien's three-run shot. The Dust Devils scored five runs in the fifth to take a 12-3 lead with the highlight coming on Wood's two-run shot.
But Diament was tiring and allowed a two-run home run and a three-run home run in the seventh.
"He was getting tired in the sixth and we knew it," Dayton coach Craig Miller said. "We just tried to stretch it."
Bowman, though, came in to nail down the win, needing just seven pitches to strike out the two batters he faced. "Matt just shut them down instantly," Miller said.
With the exception of Diament, all of Dayton's pitchers will be available. "We're really pleased about that," said Miller about his pitching situation, including having Bowman available. "He's definitely a go as well," Miller said.
As he has done all year in the second game of a doubleheader, Wood will start for Dayton. "He's done a real nice job for us," Miller said.
Dayton had 11 hits even though the No. 1 and 2 hitters weren't able to hit safely. "We did what we had to do," Miller said.
Bowman was 2-for-3 with two RBI, Torres also had three RBI, Wood had two hits, Zane Walker and Joe Delaski each had a hit and Danny Hopper added two RBI.
The Dust Devils also committed no errors. "We played excellent defense," Miller said. "If we get that again I really think good things will happen for us."