Trailing by at least two runs didn’t bother the Durango High School softball team in either game of its Saturday doubleheader.
The Demons came back and swept both games, winning 11-5 and 6-4 against the Palisade Bulldogs at Aspen Field on Fort Lewis College campus.
“It really says we work together so well. We could’ve had the hits we had and the defense we had, and we still could have lost,” said DHS junior Danica Dudley, daughter of Ed and Karla Dudley. “We did a great job supporting each other, and without the support of everyone, we wouldn’t have pulled it through.”
DHS (4-3) trailed the Bulldogs 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of the first game.
The Demons pushed five across in a two-out rally to tie the game at five heading into the sixth.
They kept the momentum going with a six-run outburst to clinch the opener.
DHS sophomore shortstop Rebekah Ford hit a bloop single with the bases loaded to give DHS a 6-5 lead.
DHS senior third baseman Katelyn Deluche hit a two run-double to go ahead 8-5.
Dudley hammered the final nail with a three-run home run, her first career homer.
“I was really nervous to get up there, but I saw it, and it was a meatball right down the middle,” Dudley said. “I was like, ‘This is mine.’”
DHS junior Augustus Brockus got the complete-game win in the circle for DHS in the first game and stepped behind the plate at catcher for the second.
DHS senior Alexys Vidunas pitched Game 2 for the Demons. She allowed four runs and struck out two to earn the complete-game victory.
“My mindset was to keep it off the plate, but make them swing and try to get my defense the easiest balls they could have,” said Vidunas, daughter of Denise and Joe Vidunas.
Palisade (2-7) took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third inning, but DHS strung together consecutive hits on multiple occasions to tie the game at three heading into the fourth.
Dudley hit a one-out triple in the bottom of the fifth before Alejandrea France doubled her in for a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, DHS senior Paige Mazur started the Demons off with a single, and Ford doubled her in, and Brockus singled Ford in for a 6-3 lead.
The Demons gave up one run in the top of the seventh before closing the game out.
“It was a familiar situation. Because they had come back before, they knew they could come back again,” DHS head coach Chelsea Rodriguez said.
DHS stopped a three-game losing streak with the sweep and now is back over .500.
The Demons will return to the road for their next stretch of schedule, three games in two days at the Delta Invitational.
They’ll play host Delta at 3 p.m. Friday and will play Rifle and Eagle Valley at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, Saturday.
“We’re going to be working on getting more on top of the ball. We had some popouts (Saturday) where we nearly missed it,” Rodriguez said. “We’re also going to work on communication and not forgetting about the next play.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
