Bayfield High School’s baseball team traveled to Colorado Springs to battle St. Mary’s and narrowly came away with a 12-10 victory while handing the Pirates their first loss of the season.
The game was delayed because of field conditions after Colorado Springs was covered in a blanket of snow Wednesday, but it didn’t faze Bayfield (2-2) early, as the Wolverines jumped out a 9-1 lead heading into the sixth inning.
St. Mary’s (3-1) had a slow start, but eventually took advantage of seven Bayfield errors.
Bayfield had 15 hits as a team with 11 runs batted in.
“We started hitting the ball again (Thursday). We struggled in Farmington,” Bayfield head coach John Qualls said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Zane (Phelps) hit the ball well. He hit the ball hard. Up and down the lineup, everyone had a hit or two (Thursday).”
Phelps went 4-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs. Kelton McCoy went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI.
Senior Brody McGhehey pitched five strong innings, which was good enough for his first win of the season. McGhehey also went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.
Bayfield gave up two runs in the sixth inning on infield errors, which began to become a theme for the Wolverines.
“Our defense was pretty rough, especially our infield,” Qualls said. “We’re still trying to figure out our infield and trying to get the infield to mesh. Everyone had a couple miscues on the infield.”
Bayfield was up 12-4 heading into the seventh inning and continued to have mistakes on the infield, giving up six more runs in the process. Despite a healthy day at the plate, Bayfield let St. Mary’s back in the game.
With runners on first and third base, two outs and down 12-10, the Pirates looked to cut into more of Bayfield’s lead. McCoy ended that notion by throwing out a St. Mary’s runner trying to steal second base to end the game.
Up next for Bayfield is a pair of top-notch matchups with Lamar (4-0) and Manitou Springs (1-1) on Friday.
Lamar will put Dalton Chandler on the mound against the Wolverines. Bayfield knows Chandler, as the sophomore hurler played on Bayfield’s summer league team last year.
First pitch for Bayfield’s game against Lamar will be at 11 a.m. with the Manitou Springs contest following immediately after. Both games will be played at Manitou Springs High School.
“Both teams will be tough teams; we won’t be able to have the errors that we had (Thursday),” Qualls said. “We hit the ball well, pitched well, but on the infield we were really bad.”
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
