BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Dayton's Brandon Aguilera, right, collides with Boulder City's No. 34 during their 3A state playoff game at Damonte Ranch on Friday.
Cory Yoder didn't need any ice water after Dayton High's opener in the NIAA 3A State Tournament on Friday. He had enough in his veins as it was.
Spring Creek was on the verge of mounting a wild comeback from an 11-4 deficit in the seventh inning when Yoder came on to pitch with the Dust Devils clinging to an 11-10 lead. Yoder came in to face Cory Merrill with the bases loaded and two outs.
With the count 3-2, Yoder uncorked a curveball and caught Merrill looking to seal the 11-10 win for Dayton. That was just the beginning of a wild day for the Dust Devils, who almost overcame a 16-0 deficit in an 18-14 loss to Boulder City.
The Dust Devils will play at 10 a.m. today against Lowry, needing three wins to take the state crown.
"I told him he had some big cahones to be able to come in there and do that," said Dayton coach Craig Miller about Yoder's pitch. "That was a terrific pitch, an awesome pitch.
"The kid was expecting a fastball and so was everybody else. The kid was frozen."
With some solid defense from centerfielder Jason McKinnon, the Dust Devils also took advantage of an unnecessary baserunning risk by Spring Creek in the inning that helped it secure the win. Merrill had stroked an RBI single with runners at first and second to make it 11-5, but McKinnon nailed the runner trying to advance from first to third on the play.
But Spring Creek kept coming back, pulling to within 11-9 on Phillip Eldridge's two-run double. The game should have been over on the next play, but instead Spring Creek scored another run on an error to pull with 11-10.
Singles by Michael Kruger, who began the rally with a base hit, and J.T. Bley loaded the bases. Miller finally pulled Joe Delaski, who had held Spring Creek to one earned run through six innings, in favor of Yoder and Yoder rewarded Miller with his deciding curveball.
Dayton took a 3-0 lead in the first when McKinnon singled. Tom O'Brien followed with a sacrifice bunt and reached when McKinnon beat pitcher J.D. Judd's throw to second.
Delaski's RBI single made it 1-0 as O'Brien moved to third. Jeff Delaski followed with a sacrifice bunt and on the throw to first, O'Brien broke for the plate. He scored on an overthrow and Joe Delaski made it to third. Delaski scored on a groundball to make it 3-0.
Spring Creek took advantage of three errors and a mental error when Dayton threw to the wrong base to score four runs, three of them unearned, to take a 4-3 lead in the third. Delaski took control after that, retiring 10 straight.
An error and another error on Rory Torvik's sacrifice bunt and a walk to McKinnon allowed Dayton to load the bases in the fourth. O'Brien's 2-run single and Joe Delaski's RBI sacrifice fly made it 6-4. Yoder hit a home run off the right field scoreboard to make it 7-4 in the fifth.
In the sixth, O'Brien belted an RBI double and Joe Delaski singled. Another run scored when the throw bounced off of Delaski as he stole second.
Jeff Delaski followed with an RBI single and after Yoder singled, Jeff Delaski scored on a wild pitch to make it 11-4. Joe and Jeff Delaski, Kenny Goss, O'Brien and Yoder all had two hits for Dayton.
In the nightcap, Yoder couldn't get out of the first inning as Boulder City took an 11-0 lead. Miller said Yoder actually didn't pitch that badly and really deserved a better fate.
The silver lining for Dayton is Yoder pitched a total of just one inning on Friday, so he'll be able to start against Lowry. Dayton also received valuable efforts from Ryan Shephard, Cory Linberg and Aguilera in relief.
Dayton also had a chance to rest catcher Ryan Ransdell and Miller said Anthony Onstott did a solid job defensively and offensive in place of Ransdell. Boulder City looked to be well on its way to a mercy win in five innings when it led 16-0, but the Dust Devils scored eight runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth to pull within 16-14.
"We were proud of the fact that the kids didn't give up and didn't want to end it in five," Miller said.
Boulder City scored twice in the seventh to take an 18-14 lead. Among the offensive leaders for Dayton was Goss.