Your Hometown News Source
Your Hometown News Source
Bulldog Will Durham slides head first into third, safe as the ball is just getting to Sunnyside Christian's third baseman. Durham is Dayton's rugged freshman catcher.
Raymond Yutzy slides safely into second.
Sooo close! Bulldog baserunner Andrew Wertz was tagged out at first after capitalizing on an error at first base that allowed him to continue to third, where the throw was just in time.
DAYTON–A taught 1-0 contest through five inning, pitchers VandeGraaf of Sunnyside Christian and Dayton's Jordan McCowen were in a classic pitcher's duel until the Knights broke the spell with runs in the fifth and sixth to win 3-1 and end Dayton's season here Friday, May 3.
The Bulldogs finished with a 15-4 overall season and second place in the SE 1B league behind Pomeroy.
"The young Dayton team looks forward to a bright future on the baseball diamond as they accomplished a major goal of making post season for the first time in many years," said Head Coach Jeff McCowen.
The Knights scored in the top of the second when the batter walked then advanced as the second of the next two batters sacrificed him around for the 1-0 lead.
VandeGraaf and McCowen then duked it out through the third and fourth innings. In the top of the third, a Knight reach on a single then McCowen dispatched three in a row while the defense held the base runner at second.
In the bottom of the third, Balian Walter walked and took second on a passed ball and stole third. Raymond Yutzy flew out to center, Denver Hutchens went down swinging and McCowen was walked. With two on the pond, Colton Steinhoff was struck out.
In the fourth, McCowen and the Bulldog defense put SSC out one-two-three a fly to second, a throw-out at first and another pop up to second base.
In the bottom frame, Will Durham tripled to right but was held there by VandeGraaf's next three strike outs.
VandeGraaf dribbed a hit to the pitcher's mound and reached on a bad throw. The next batter was hit by pitching and SSC moved runners to third and second on a sac bunt. The next batter walked and VandeGraaf scored on a full-swing bunt that tepidly rolled toward the mound. McCowen struck out the next batter and the third out was a pop up to short.
Yutzy swung on a belted a double into left, the ball just fair past third before veering foul, allowing him to get an extra base. But there he festered while the next batters were handled by SSC's pitching.
Another Sunnyside run was scored after the lead-off batter hit a Texas leaguer to right. He scored on a double to left, then McCowen bore down and struck out the next batter with three pitches, fielded a line drive for out two and struck out the last batter.
In the bottom of the sixth, Steinhoff was walked and took second on a passed ball. He moved to third on a sacrifice fly by Durham and scored on Will Cranmer's sac fly to center. Andrew Wertz hit a dribbler to the pitcher, moved to second on a bad throw to first and was tagged out at third to end the inning.
Dayton's defense held a runner at third while getting three outs with caught fly balls and a second to first play.
SSC brought in a fresh arm and he retired Dayton one-two-three for the win.
Sunnyside Christian 3, Dayton 1 (5-3)
R H E
SSC 010 011 0-3 4 1
Day 000 001 0-1 2 2
Battery: SSC-VandeGraaf and Smeenk. Dayton-McCowen, Hutchens (6) and Durham.
Hits: SSC-Bosma, DeBoer, Alseth, VandeGraaf. Dayton-McCowen, Yutzy.
The Bulldogs handed SJEL a 17-4 defeat in their final regular-season game. McCowen went four for four at the plat with three RBIs, and Silas Czapka knocked two doubles in a three of four performance.
Dayton 17, SJEL 4 (4-30)
R H E
SJEL 013 10-4 7 0
D 430 10x-17 12 1
Battery: SJEL-Webb, Maguire (4) and Maguire, Defore (4). Dayton-Curham, McCowen (3), Walter (5) and Walter, Durham (3).
Hits: SJEL-Mathew, Maguire 2, Johnson, Webb 2. Dayton-Czapka 3, McCowen 4, Steinhoff, Durham, Cranmer, Wertz, Yutzy.
