DAYTON - Eight and counting.
The Dayton Dust Devils got six strong innings from Timo Ply and some clutch hitting by Conner Oliver and Logan Jones to knock off Yerington 5-2 in a Lahontan League baseball game Tuesday afternoon.
Dayton is 8-0 overall and 4-0 in league play entering this weekend's trip to Winnemucca to play Lowry, Elko and Spring Creek.
"I was happy with our pitching again," Dayton coach Jay Merrell said. "Timo pitched out of some jams. Our hitting was pretty good. We kept adding (to the run total) the first four innings.
"Consistency on offense and defense have been the key (thus far). We're not making a lot of errors; we're not giving up a lot of stuff for free. We're putting the ball in play with runners on base."
Dayton took a 1-0 lead in the first when Sam Hadley singled, advanced to second on Jones' infield out and scored on Oliver's single to left-center field.
After Ply worked out of a small jam in the second, Dayton added another run in the bottom of the inning when Forrest Burrows singled to right, moved to second on T.J. Harner's single, to third when Ply was hit by a pitch and scored when Logan Garling walked. Yerington's T.J. Kinsey retired Hadley and Jones on fly balls to right to end the inning.
The Dust Devils added another run in the third when Oliver doubled, went to third on Kyle Farnworth's fly to center and scored on Burrows' single.
Yerington scored twice in the fourth, slicing the deficit to 3-2.
Ply plunked Tyler Peeples with a pitch, one of three hit batsmen on the day. Peeples moved to third on a single by Jarrod Adams and scored on a squeeze bunt by Kinsey. Curtis Stubblefield followed with a run-scoring single to right-centerfield. Stubblefield was caught staling for the second out, and Corbin Cliften grounded out to second to end the inning.
Dayton showed its resiliency by scoring two in the fourth after two out.
Hadley singled to right and Jones followed with a triple into the right field corner to score Hadley. Oliver followed with his second run-scoring hit of the game to account for the game's final runs.
"The first one (hit) I just tried to go with the pitch," Oliver said.
Ply worked out of another jam in the fifth, an inning which saw him hit two more batters. With one out and the bases loaded, Peeples hit a fly ball to left. Farnworth threw home and the ball skipped by Hadley. Ply was backing up the play and flipped to Hadley who tagged out Sam Monohan to end the inning.
Ply came out after a scoreless sixth, and Oliver got the save by striking out the side in the seventh.
"I thought I threw pretty decent," Ply said.
The Dayton pitcher said getting away from proper mechanics was the reason why he hit three batters. Other than that, he was pretty solid.
"When I try to hump up and get a couple of more miles on my fastball, my elbow goes out and I end up throwing the ball in the middle of the batter's box."
Dayton players won't spend a lot of time savoring this win. The Dust Devils know they have bigger fish to fry.
"We hadn't played anybody really good (until today)," Oliver said. "Our approach at the plate has been really good. Everybody has contributed. We're out at practice working hard on our hitting.
"We're trying to take things one game at a time; take it slow."
