After a long wait, the Durango Demons finally had their home opener Tuesday. They showed their home fans a little bit of everything on the baseball diamond while they were at it.
Durango High School (4-3) received a two-run home run from senior Hayden Sill and turned a triple play in a 7-1 win against Denver North (4-5) at Walden Memorial Field.
“That was pretty surprising. How many of those do you see in a lifetime? It’s really pretty rare,” DHS head coach Eric Baker said of the team’s second-inning triple play. “The kids and coaches all get jazzed about that, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Lawrence Mayberry started a couple of strong defensive plays. After leaping to grab a line drive and firing a throw to first base to turn a double play to end the top of the first inning, he grabbed another well-hit liner to second base to start the triple play. After snagging the liner, Mayberry fired to second base to double off a Denver North runner who had strayed too far. Shortstop Casey Dunlap hauled in Mayberry’s throw and quickly turned to fire to first base, where Chris Jaworsky was waiting to tag his base to complete the triple play, as another Viking on first also had started to run on contact.
“It feels pretty good just to help out the pitcher,” said Mayberry, son of George and Tonya Mayberry. “That’s all I’m trying to do.”
The smooth defense allowed DHS starting pitcher Dayne Rowley to escape some early trouble after he had hit two batters and the Demons had committed an error behind him in the first two innings.
“I started off with a couple walks that inning, hit a batter, and then the team came through for me,” said Rowley, the son of Cari and Darren Rowley and a Metro State University signee. “Got a line drive, turned it into a triple play, so nothing better than that.”
Rowley allowed only one hit in five innings of work. He walked two and plunked three batters with pitches, but he evened it out by recording five strikeouts. Baker called it one of Rowley’s best outings in the last two seasons.
“I know he had a couple of hit batters, but that happens in baseball. Now, kids crowd the plate a lot. It’s tough to come inside on kids and not hit them sometimes,” Baker said. “He did well and took a big step, and I hope to see him build on it.”
Sill did a lot of damage at the plate for the Demons. He was 3-for-4 with a double, four runs batted in and two runs scored to go along with his sixth-inning homer, a two-run shot that also scored Mayberry.
Sill’s home run came on the first pitch of the at-bat, a belt-high fastball that he turned into a no-doubt homer as soon as it left the bat.
“I was feeling great,” the son of Chris and Monica Sill said. “My swing feels good right now. Hats off to the rest of the team, because they’re hitting really well, too.”
Mayberry was 1-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored. Casey Dunlap was 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI, and Rowley went 1-for-3 with a two-run single to help his cause in the third inning.
The Vikings’ lone run came in the top of the seventh, when catcher Thomas Alexander belted a solo home run that barely stayed fair inside the left field foul pole.
Baker was happy with his team’s play after taking a week off for spring break. The Demons committed only two fielding errors and had nine hits to Denver North’s three.
DHS will open Southwestern League play on the road Friday at Fruita Monument (9-0). The Demons lost to the unbeaten Wildcats 11-8 earlier this season in the championship game of the Piedra Vista Invitational at Ricketts Park in Farmington.
“The guys are ready to go back and get another crack at them,” Baker said. “Fruita is a good team that’s always competitive. They’re not always the prettiest, but they always battle and put the ball in play.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
