Dayton baseball eliminated by Lowry

RENO - The young Dayton High baseball team has now got a taste of the NIAA 3A State Baseball Tournament. There's no denying that the Dust Devils will want more than just a taste next year.

Dayton could take advantage of its chances and while it made most of the defensive plays, the Dust Devils' inability to make them all led to a 3-1 loss to Lowry on Friday at Damonte Ranch, eliminating them from the state tournament.

But Dayton only loses three seniors from this team - Jason McKinnon, Kenny Goss and Jeff Delaski - so the Dust Devils have plans to make a return trip to state next year.

"It was a good season for us," Dayton coach Craig Miller said. "We're a very young team.

"It's always difficult to end your season like this. We hope to be in this position next year. That's our intent."

Lowry scored all three of its run in the second inning on defensive miscues by the Dust Devils. A misplayed flyball led to Zach Bristol's two-run inside-the-park home run. Lowry's other run came on Dayton's only error.

Otherwise Cory Yoder was solid for Dayton as he rebounded from Friday in which he was touched for 11 runs in the first against Boulder City to pitch a complete game, allowing two earned runs. "Cory did a real nice job fur us," Miller said.

Dayton put the leadoff man on in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but scored only one run. In the third, Ryan Ransdell singled, went to second on a balk, moved to third on McKinnon's deep flyball to center field and scored on Tom O'Brien's groundout.

In the fifth, Brandon Aguilera walked, Ransdell singled and McKinnon reached on a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. But Levi Carl induced a comebacker for a 1-2-3 double play and the got a popup to end the inning.

In the sixth after an error, Yoder singled to give Dayton runners at first and second with no outs. Luis Zamudio came in for Carl and got a strikeout and a double play to end the jam. Zamudio went on to strike out the side in the seventh.

"We gave them an inside the park home run," Miller said. "It was a ball that should have been caught. That's the breaks of the game.

"We learn from the mistakes. We remember those things so we don't make the same mistake again and we build upon it.

Ransdell led Dayton with two hits and Delaski and Goss each added a hit. Miller praised his seniors.

"The seniors were our leaders," he said. "We feel our seniors have provided the younger kids the leadership."