PREPS: Dayton loses series opener to Truckee

DAYTON - Dayton High's baseball team has its back to the wall - again.

The Dust Devils, who won the Lahontan League regular-season title, are one game from elimination after dropping a 6-4 decision to Truckee in the opening game of their best-of-three series Friday afternoon.

The teams will play again at 10 a.m. today with Houston Berntson starting for Dayton. If Truckee wins, the Wolverines will advance to next week's state tourney in Mesquite. If Dayton wins the first game, a second game will be played 30 minutes after the first game has ended.

"Last year we went to Lowry and lost the first game of the playoffs," Dayton coach Jay Merrell said. "The kids are definitely down. They all thought we should have won the game.

"We hit the ball hard today, but we hit a lot right at people. We swung it well."

Dayton took a 2-0 lead in the first when Sam Hadley walked and came around to score on a single by Houston Berntson, who eventually scored on a single by Kyle Farnworth.

Truckee tied the game with single runs in the third and fifth, and broke the tie with two in the sixth on a homer by Stein Retzlaff off Conner Oliver. The Wolverines added two more in the top of the seventh, as Oliver turned the ball over to Logan Garling with no outs.

Oliver worked 6-plus innings, allowing five hits and five walks while striking out 12.

"Overall he did OK," Merrell said of Oliver. "He struggled with walks a little bit."

Dayton rallied in the bottom of the seventh when T.J. Harnar hit a pinch-hit homer, scoring Jake Koch ahead of him.