The Durango High School baseball season ended the same way it started, with a few one-run games.
The Demons traveled to Grand Junction and split a doubleheader with the Tigers on Saturday. DHS won the opener 5-4 but fell in the final game of the season, 6-5.
DHS opened the season with three-consecutive one-run losses, and the Demons played 10 one-run games in all. The team finished with a 6-13 overall record and a 3-5 record in 5A/4A Southwestern League play. Grand Junction improved to 11-8 and went 4-4 in the SWL.
“Couple more one-run games; might as well end the season on the same theme,” DHS head coach Eric Baker said. “I don’t know how we did that this year. A lot of close games. I felt like we played as competitive as we were capable of ending the season. We didn’t have much to play for, but we came out and gave a good team everything they can handle.”
Tyler Ruetschle pitched the complete game in the opener and earned the win.
“Ty pitched whale of a game,” Baker said. “He didn’t have his best stuff out the outset. They got some runs on him. But we battled back, got a lead and he really bore down. He started that last inning at 100 pitches, and he was able to finish them off in eight or nine pitches and get himself a win. It was impressive to see.”
Peyton Woolverton pitched 5 1/3 innings in Game 2. He gave up seven hits and earned five of the six runs. He struck out six and walked five before being relieved by Dakota Padoven, who didn’t allow a hit in 1 2/3 innings. He walked one batter.
The offensive highlight of Saturday for the Demons was a three-run home run by Jacob Bourdon in the second game. It gave the Demons a 5-4 lead at the time.
“It was a mammoth shot,” Baker said. “Absolute bomb.”
Gavin Mestas also had a double in Game 2. he was 1-for-3 with a run and a run batted in.
Girls Soccer
Girls SoccerSavannah Kaufmann scored a goal with an assist from Misty Helton, and it will go down as the final score of the season for the Wolverines.
Bayfield High School’s girls soccer team finished the season with a 6-1 loss Saturday at Telluride. Kaufmann tallied her goal in the 52nd minute to cut the Miners’ lead to 3-1. But BHS couldn’t get any closer.
Helton made a hustle play to save a ball from going out of bounds and fed a perfect pass to Kaufmann, who beat a sliding goalkeeper with a nice touch on the ball for a goal.
BHS trailed 2-0 at halftime. The Wolverines fell to 5-10 overall on the season and 3-5 in 3A Region 5. Telluride improved to 10-3-1 and is 6-1-1 in 2A Region 4.
The Wolverines will lose seniors Makenna Cowan, Lenka Doskocil, Kailee Millard and Taylor Morris.
The Titans scored four goals in each half to down the Bobcats 8-0 on Saturday in a neutral-field game in Crested Butte.
Ignacio fell to 0-14 to end its season. The Bobcats were 0-10 in 2A Region 4. The loss came one day after a 7-0 loss at Telluride for the Bobcats.
Ignacio’s highlight of the season came in a 3-1 loss April 27th at Del Norte. The goal was the only score of the year for the IHS girls team, which has not won a game since the 2012 season when it went 1-10. Since 2009, the Bobcats are 4-84. Ignacio has only scored two goals the last two years.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
