Wild-card points made the Class 4A baseball state tournament draw, well, wild.
The Durango High School Demons struggled during the 2015 campaign, going 6-13 overall and 2-8 in the Class 4A/5A Southwestern League. But playing a tough schedule that included a few 5A teams and a win against the No. 1 team, Piedra Vista, in the New Mexico Class 5A state tournament gave the Demons added value in CHSAA’s wild card system that helps determine the state tournament field.
Even with a strong schedule, at 6-13 DHS head coach Eric Baker knew his team had slim odds of hosting a first-round district tournament.
But CHSAA made the Demons the last of eight teams selected to host a district tournament this weekend, while several teams with stronger résumés will have to hit the road for the tournament’s opening round.
“I am a little surprised, of course. That certainly wasn’t something I expected,” Baker said after finding out his team would host games. “Based on wild-card points, that evidently has some pretty strong weighting playing 5A teams and playing highly-ranked 5A teams three times.”
DHS has the worst overall record in the 32-team field. No. 30 Kennedy is the only other team with a losing record, coming in at 9-10.
The Demons’ only two wins in league came against Montezuma-Cortez, who also finished 6-13. DHS needed extra innings to beat the Panthers at home April 24, their last win of the season before three consecutive losses to end the season. Those losses included a 7-4 loss at Class 3A Bayfield and an 18-0 loss at Grand Junction.
Perhaps the most perplexing is the case of Palisade. The Bulldogs went 16-3 this season and 13-1 in their league. They also had a 9-5 win at Durango earlier in the season. But Palisade only was awarded the 10th-seed and will have to go on the road to play in No. 7 Erie’s district.
Montrose (13-6), the 4A SWL champion, earned the No. 2 seed.
No. 8 DHS will play No. 25 Eagle Valley (12-7) at 10 a.m. in the District 8 semifinal at home Saturday, with the winner advancing to play the winner of No. 9 Evergreen (14-5) and No. 24 Delta (12-7) at 3 p.m.
“It will be a nice atmosphere. Durango fans are really good and love to come watch good baseball, not just Durango but all the teams,” Baker said.
Baker said he didn’t think playing at home this weekend would be an extra motivator for his team. He said sometimes it adds extra pressure to be the home team during the playoffs, where it is single-elimination in the district round.
DHS has the experience wen it comes to postseason baseball. They’ve reach the final four at state in each of the last two seasons, though many pieces from last year’s team graduated.
“We’re going to need the younger kids to step up, too. It is a benefit to have the seniors and guys who, if not two years in a row, at least have been there last year and saw the atmosphere and felt it,” Baker said. “It won’t be a huge surprise to our guys, but we’ll need everyone clicking and playing well. If things go right for us, we can be right there and be competitive.”
Things certainly have gone right for the Demons so far.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
