The Durango Demons baseball team is playing with desperation in hopes of making the playoffs after a rough start set them back. Friday’s impressive win against 5A/4A Southwestern League leaders Fruita Monument was a big step toward the Demons’ goal.
Durango’s Tyler Ruetschle pitched a gem in tough conditions Friday. The senior threw a complete game and allowed four runs, three of which were earned. The right-hander gave up seven hits, struck out seven Wildcats and walked just one.
“It was just a really good day to pitch and the defense played great behind me,” Ruetschle said. “It was nice environment to pitch because it was tough for the batters to get comfortable with how cold it was.”
If the Durango offense was uncomfortable, they did a good job of hiding it.
The Demons (5-11, 2-3 SWL) scored in each of the first five innings off of Fruita Monument ace Trey Morrill. The bulk of the production came from the bottom of the DHS order. The last three batters, Landen Sill, Ryan Genualdi and Mark Lamoreaux were 4-for-10 combined with four runs batted in and five runs scored.
“Coach Ryan Woolverton had the guys out before practice all week taking swings off a souped up pitching machine to prepare for this game,” Durango head coach Eric Baker said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “We usually hit good pitching pretty well and the kind of production we got (Friday) is what wins ballgames. We had different guys come through in big spots and that was really the key to this win.”
The Demons had a narrow 4-3 lead after three innings and broke the game open with five combined runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Genualdi’s two-run single in the fifth gave DHS a six-run lead. The junior led the offensive outburst going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Lamoreaux finished 1-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI and Sill was 1-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the win.
With the offense firing on all cylinders, Ruetschle settled in. He allowed just one run in the final four innings en route to his first win of the season.
“We’ve been competing hard all year and it just hasn’t gone our way very often up until now,” the winning pitcher said. “It means a lot to us to beat a team like Fruita Monument, but this doesn’t matter much unless we come back and do it again (Saturday).”
If Durango can win the final three games of the league schedule, it has an outside chance of winning the league after starting the season 1-7.
“I definitely think we have the horses to make it happen, but, realistically, it’s a pretty tall order beating Fruita twice and sweeping Grand Junction up there,” Baker said. “We just have to take it one game at a time. (Friday) was a big first step, but we need to forget that now and focus on winning the next one. That’s all we can do at this point.”
Durango will try to pull off the weekend sweep of the first-place Wildcats (12-6, 5-2 SWL) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at DHS.
jfries@durangoherald.com
