One pitch is all it took to change the momentum Saturday afternoon as the Palisade High School baseball team took down Durango, 9-8, for the 4A/5A Southwestern League title.
The Demons suffered their first loss at home on Friday to Palisade and had the chance to bounce back against the Bulldogs on Saturday to win the league title. After Friday’s game was dominated by defense, both teams got their bats going on Saturday.
Three home runs were scored, and the teams were tied at eight when senior Dawson McInnes really started feeling it on the mound with two consecutive strikeouts to hype up the dugout and the crowd. Then, everything changed with one pitch as McInnes injured his elbow and had to come out of the game.
That injury stopped Durango’s momentum and a few throws later, the Demons were down one and couldn’t recover as Palisade left Durango High School as league champions.
“We competed our butts of,” Durango head coach Masen Hibbeler said. “That’s all you can ask for. The top two teams in the state were on the diamond today. One thing went their way, and that’s how those games are going to go when you have two of the best going at it.”
Durango dropped to 16-7 overall and finished 4A/5A Southwestern League play in second at 7-3. Sophomore Cole Clark led the Demons’ hitting, going 1-1 at bat with one home run and two RBIs. Junior Coen Anderson, McInnes and senior Landin “Bubba” Padilla each had two hits for Durango.
The Demons had four pitchers throw on Saturday. McInnes finished with two strikeouts and four walks, and senior Austin Romero finished with three hits allowed and two walks.
Palisade improved to 20-3 overall and finished 8-2 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. The Bulldogs’ Kian Kinslow finished the day 3-4 at bat, and Will Seriani finished with two strikeouts on the mound after pitching four innings.
The Demons got off to a great start at the top of the first, getting two hits that led to three runs. Durango got two quick outs in the bottom of the first, and a Palisade hitter hit one to Clark for an easy out to finish the inning.
After Durango’s hitters had three pop flies for easy outs, Palisade got a much-needed offensive boost from a line drive down the first baseline by Marshall Hickerson. This brought Kinslow home and Hickerson got to third with two outs on the board.
Clark was struggling to find the strike zone, and when he did, Palisade made him pay. Hunter Howard smashed a three-run homer to the left side to take the lead. Kinslow stepped up to the plate after and crushed another homer in the exact same spot. Clark and the Demons looked stunned as their 3-0 lead became a 5-3 deficit in about three minutes. Those two hits brought Clark’s day to an end, with Romero replacing him. Durango escaped the inning without letting any more runs in.
“Just keep filling it up,” Hibbeler said to his team at the mound. “We've got our sticks rolling, and that's our kind of game. So it was fun to watch them compete.”
After struggling on the mound, Clark responded in the best way possible at the plate. He drove a ball that didn’t look like it had the distance, but just floated just left of center field for a two-run homer to tie the game at five going into the bottom of the fourth.
Two doubles by the Bulldogs brought a runner home to retake the lead. The Demons got out of the bottom of the fourth down 6-5. With two outs, Padilla hit one that was nearly a homer, but just hit the inside fence for a double. Anderson hit one right between the gap between the shortstop and third baseman. The Palisade fielder had an error, allowing Padilla to come home and Anderson to advance to third.
Palisade made a pitching change after Anderson’s hit, bringing in Howard. Romero hit one right down the middle to bring Anderson home for the 7-6 lead. A pop fly brought the top of the fifth to an end with Durango up 7-6.
A double down the right baseline started the bottom of the fifth, and a Palisade runner got home after tagging up on a pop fly to tie the game. McInnes replaced Romero on the mound and walked three consecutive batters with only one out on the board. Durango finished the inning with a double play to escape the inning down 8-7.
“They did a great job of filling up the zone,” Hibbeler said about his pitchers. “They made a couple of mistakes, they got hit, but they did the same thing to us. We took advantage of their mistakes.”
Clark got on base after being walked, and tagged up after a pop fly to get home to tie the game at 8. After McInnes’ injury, Sam Clark came in with two outs, but couldn’t close out the inning without allowing a run to go down 9-8 going into the seventh.
The Demons couldn’t wrestle back the momentum at the bottom of the seventh and Palisade finished the game with three easy outs.
After the game, Durango celebrated its 11 seniors on the field with family. The Demons will host a regional on Friday or Saturday. Those matchups will be posted on Sunday on chsaanow.com.
“It was a special day,” Hibbeler said. “I got them all as juniors. So watching them grow into the young men and ball players they are today is something really special and something I'll remember for the rest of my life.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
