Dayton softball hangs on for road win

SPARKS " For five innings Friday afternoon, the Dayton Dust Devils looked like the same team that made it to the 3A state championship game last season. But for the remaining two innings, they reverted back to the same team that put up a dismal 3-10 conference record coming into the day.

The Dayton softball team hung on to an 8-7 victory over the Sparks Railroaders at Tip Whitehead Field after it jumped out to an 8-0 lead and gave up the seven runs in the final two innings.

"I tend to think that we get a little bit complacent when we get ahead in a game," Dayton coach Dusti Houk said. "We don't have that knock 'em out attitude and we need to develop that so that we can put the opponent down and score those runs and end it early so that you don't have to play the full seven innings."

Dayton won the second game of the doubleheader 9-4. It will play at Yerington at 4 p.m., Wednesday for the start of a three-game series that will decide which team will take the six seed for the regional tournament and which will stay home.

The falling action to Dayton's day was when pitcher Mackenzie Cole, who spent most of the season out of the circle with a back injury, began to feel tightness in her throwing arm. She tried to stretch it out by pushing her fingers up her outstretched forearm and shaking her arm loose, but it was largely to no avail.

She started off the sixth inning with a walk and a strikeout before giving up an RBI-double for the Railroaders' first score of the game. The next six batters reached safely as Sparks scored four runs in the inning.

Cole's defense wasn't able to bail her out. Dayton had six errors in the game, including a throwing error to start off the seventh inning that eventually became the Railroaders' fifth run of the game.

Sparks scored two more runs in the inning before Cole put her aching arm out of her mind and struck out the final two batters of the game.

"Her arm was tightening up a little bit, but she was bound and determined to complete the game," Houk said.

The Dust Devils got in the board early as they posted three runs in the first, four in the second and one more in the sixth.

Cole knocked in the first run with hard grounder to left field, scoring Mariah Collins. Breanne Dehaven reached on a throwing error that advanced Cole to third and Melissa Coyle hit a two-RBI single to left field to make it 3-0.

Lindsie Cross picked up the win in the second game.

allowing seven hits on two strikeouts.

Natasha Wells was 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs, Cross went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs and a triple.