Durango High School baseball had its back against the wall again.
This time, the Demons responded. Loudly.
Durango scored nine runs in the top of the seventh inning to rally past Grand Junction Central 17-13 on Saturday in Grand Junction.
“It was good. We needed to be on that end of a big inning,” DHS head coach Rob Coddington said.
Durango (8-9, 3-5 Southwestern League) entered the game having lost four of its last five games and was staring down another loss. But the big inning gave the Demons a big cushion, and Ben Wiley shut the door in the seventh to earn the victory. Wiley threw three innings and allowed six runs on four hits with three strikeouts and five walks.
The win over a Class 5A school should help DHS in terms of strength of schedule in the hunt for the postseason, too.
“Absolutely (Saturday) helped. Beating a 5A team for us as a 4A team helped a lot,” Coddington said.
The Demons grabbed an early 3-0 lead and led 5-3 before the Warriors hung a four-spot in the fifth to lead 7-5.
DHS regained the lead 8-7 in the top of the fifth before Central scored once to tie in the bottom of the inning before scoring five in the sixth to push Durango to the brink.
Isiah Mayberry went 3-for-5 with a homer, a double and two runs batted in. Ty Elliott and Ty Worley each went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while Sean Blanchard had a pair of hits and three RBIs for Durango.
Frank DiThomas paced Grand Junction Central (9-8, 4-4 SWL) with a 3-for-3 day with a double and two RBIs.
Durango will play at Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday before capping the regular season against Grand Junction on Saturday at DHS.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
