Mike Burrows has been involved with the Dayton High baseball program for the past 14 years, and now he has inherited the head coaching job after Ryan Ransdell stepped down after a 10-19 season.
“I’d assisted for 14 years, and always avoided the head job,” said Burrows, whose team opens Northern 1A play Friday at home against Spring Creek. “I looked around, and with Ryan getting a job and not being able to come back, I was the last man standing.”
Burrows insists he wants to do things right, and the first thing he wants to do is build the program from the ground up starting with a summer baseball program which has been almost non-existent at the high school level.
“I’ve got my Sierra Smoke program,” Burrows said. “We’re going to have an under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 teams. If guys want to play next year at Dayton, they are going to have to commit to playing summer baseball. I realize we have to share time with whomever the new football coach is and coach (Jason) Santos. I want to try to keep this thing together.
“I’ve established a mentor program with the local Little League, and we’re going to have an alumni game this year. We’re bringing back Matt Bowman (who played four years at UNR) and some other former players have indicated they are going to come back. Bottom line is that I want to get a program established here, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work. I want to develop a program like Pete Savage has at Reno and like Ron (McNutt) did at Carson. I think Dayton can be a baseball town.”
Burrows is excited Dayton will play South Tahoe at Aces Stadium on April 28, and the Dust Devils have been selected to host the baseball regionals. Burrows said members of the Aces’ ground crew has been out and rebuilt the pitching mound. He’s excited about the changes that have already taken place.
The Dust Devils were 10-19 last year, losing eight games by one run.
The cupboard is pretty bare this year with four returning starters — senior shortstop Marcos Saylor (.361, 13 RBI), pitcher-second baseman Mike Selmi (.397, 16 RBI), outfielder-pitcher Jaret Reed (.276, 10 RBI) and catcher-pitcher D.J. Baker (.279, HR, 9 RBI). Also returning are pitcher-outfielder Mason Haines (.235), outfielder Austin Rodgers (.154, 4 RBI) and third baseman Jesse Schmidt (.185, 3 RBI).
Newcomers first baseman Trevor Burrows, designated hitter Gage Duke and left fielder Jacob Nelson are expected to start on Friday. Coach Burrows likes Duke’s offense, and he’s likely to be the team’s designated hitter. The coach said his bat needs to be in the line-up.”
“The kids are working hard,” Burrows said. “We’re in a tough league. I think every school in our league except Truckee and Sparks is nearly twice our size. We’re really green. We have a lot of young kids, but we do have good senior leadership with our three seniors. We’re going to play hard. We have great attitudes.”
