Baseball is a game that can flip in one inning. Just ask the Durango High School and Lewis-Palmer High School baseball teams.
No. 3 Lewis-Palmer looked like it was on its way to an easy victory in the 4A Region 3 regional championship against No. 19 Durango on Saturday afternoon. The Rangers, playing at home as the host of the regional, were up 7-1 after the first inning. But Durango came roaring back to stun Lewis-Palmer for a 13-8 victory in a game that took over five hours.
The Demons captured their first regional title since 2014 and improved to 15-8 overall. Lewis-Palmer finished its season 19-6 overall.
After Lewis-Palmer got off to a 7-1 start, neither team scored in the second inning. Durango started to build some momentum in the top of the third, scoring four runs and cutting its deficit to 7-5.
The Demons’ bats caught fire at the top of the fourth. Junior Austin Romero had a two-run homer to get his teammates out of the dugout and around home plate to mob him as he came home to tie the game at 7-7.
Junior Dawson McInnes gave the Demons the lead with a double that brought junior Landin Padilla home.
The hits kept coming for Durango and the mistakes started mounting for Lewis-Palmer. Errant throws and mishandled catches allowed the Demons to get in a better position on the diamond with their athleticism and Durango did a good job stealing bases. Durango led 11-7 after the fourth inning.
On defense, junior Ollie Peterson made a phenomenal catch deep in the outfield to end the bottom of the fourth inning with Durango up 11-7.
Sophomore Duncan Walsh hit a beautiful grounder down the first baseline that brought McInnes and another Demon home for the 13-7 lead in the top of the sixth.
Play was stopped for over an hour due to a lightning delay. Before or after the lightning, Lewis-Palmer couldn’t get anything going on offense and Durango finished the seventh inning with a 13-8 victory.
Durango outhit Lewis-Palmer 14-9. Romero went 4-5 at the plate, including his home run. McInnes and Padilla were both 3-5 and junior Dylan Burns went 2-5.
Senior Jack Englund pitched 6.2 innings for the Demons, finishing with seven strikeouts, eight hits and three runs allowed.
The Demons move on to the state playoffs. Each regional winner earns a spot in the state playoffs, so there are eight teams in the state bracket.
Durango received the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 Falcon on Friday at 9:30 p.m. at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Falcon is 19-3-1 overall and finished 10-0 in the 4A/3A CSML North League. The Falcons haven’t lost since April 2 and are on a 16-game winning streak. Falcon was the No. 2 seed in the regionals and beat No. 31 Centaurus, 15-0 and No. 15 Mead, 5-4 for its regional title.
The winner of the Falcon vs. Durango game will play the winner of No. 3 Golden vs. No. 6 Cheyenne Mountain on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
