Dayton baseball rolls past Fernley

DAYTON - While there's still some unfinished business, the Dayton High baseball team sure looks like it's on a mission.

Dayton, the Northern 3A regular season champion, opened the Northern 3A playoffs with a 12-1 win over Fernley to take a 1-0 lead in the best two-of-three series. The Dust Devils can clinch its second straight trip to the NIAA 3A State Championships next week at Faith Lutheran with a win today in the 10 a.m. game. If Fernley can somehow beat Dayton, the Vaqueros would for a third game for the right to go to state shortly after the opener.

Joe Delaski pitched a complete game three-hitter for Dayton in the game that was called after 4 1/2 innings. Dayton will throw Cory Yoder, who is really Dayton's other ace along with Delaski, in today's 10 a.m. game.

"Everything was working just the ay I wanted to," Delaski said. "Our game plan was no walks and no errors."

Delaski couldn't quite reach the goal of no walks as he walked one, but Dayton's defense was flawless.

"Joe's a very smart pitcher," Dayton coach Craig Miller said. "He's going to be deceptive.

"He's not overly fast but he makes himself look a lot faster than he really is because he's smart out there. He throws a lot of offspeed stuff that makes his fastball look a lot faster than it really is."

Among the defensive leaders was shortstop Tom O'Brien, who made several solid plays. "The defense was outstanding," Miller said.

Dayton jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first when Tim Doyle walked, O'Brien singled and Ryan Ransdell walked to load the bases. A run scored on a balk, another run scored on a fielder's choice and Ryan Shepherd belted an RBI double to make it 3-0.

Fernley cut the led to 3-1 in the second when Ryan Simpson doubled, Will Wagner singled and Ryan Berumen followed with an RBI fielder's choice.

Dayton went up 9-1 in the third, O'Brien singled, Delaski and Ryan Ransdell walked and Yoder followed with a two-run single. Shepherd hit an RBI singled, another run scored on an error and Anthony Onstott walked to force in a run. Rory Torvik singled, Brandon Aguilera walked and Delaski walked to force in a run to make it 9-1.

Simpson entered with the bases loaded and no outs and minimized the damage by striking out the side. But he was pulled after walking Yoder and Josh Walker. Yoder beat the throw to third on Torvik's sacrifice bunt to load the bases.

Yoder then scored on a wild pitch, another run scored on a groundout and Doyle beat out an infield single to bring home a run, making it 12-1.

Along with his two hits, Shepherd also made a diving catch of a foul pop in front of the Dayton dugout in the fourth. O'Brien also had two hits and Jeff Thompson had Fernley's other hit.

With virtually its entire team back from last year's squad from state, the goal for Dayton has obviously been to return.

"Our mission was to get to state," Miller said. "We felt that we had the personnel for it. It's a solid group of guys. It's ajust a good team chemistry right now."

But Miller also stressed that his team is in a three-part series - the regular season, zone and state - and that his team still has to finish the second part to move on to the third part.

FERNLEY SOFTBALL 7, DAYTON 4

Fernley took a 1-0 lead in the best two-of-three series at Fernley. The Vaqueros can wrap up a return trip to state with a win at 10 a.m. today while Dayton must win to force a third game.

Dayton scored three runs to take a 3-0 lead in the third, but Fernley scored five runs in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead. Sierra Barnwell went the distance for Dayton while Heather Matthews went the distance to pick up the win for Fernley.

Brittany Hill was 2-for-4 with a run, Sara Simmons was 2-for-3 with a run, double and two RBI, Barnwell was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a double, Matia Spencer was 2-for-3 with a double and a run and Breann DeHaven added a hit for Dayton.

Francis Estrada was 3-for-4 with two runs, Sevreana Johnson was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs, Jamie King had a double and two RBI, Nicole Whitney had a double and a run and Matthews was 2-for-4 with a double and a run for Fernley.