Weather threw the Durango baseball team a curveball over the weekend, and made Monday a pivotal day for the Demons’ playoff hopes. Saturday’s storms up north set up a Monday finish for a game against Fruita Monument before the Demons played their regularly scheduled game against Grand Junction Central.
Durango and Fruita picked up where they left off, in the bottom of the fourth inning with Fruita winning 6-3. Durango rallied to come back, and had multiple chances to win, but couldn’t manufacture the winning run in a heartbreaking 9-6 loss in nine innings. However, the Demons came up with a much needed 8-5 win in the second game to make their case for playoff action.
“We had Fruita right where we wanted them,” Durango head coach Eric Baker said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “We came back and tied it and had great chances to steal a win, but never got the big hit. For the guys to come back after a disappointment like that and handle a good Grand Junction Central team was good stuff.”
Durango had the winning run on second base in the seventh inning and stranded him there. The Demons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the eighth before coming away with nothing. Fruita capitalized on its chances and celebrated the Southwestern League title on the field as the Demons gathered in the outfield.
“We had a little talk out there as Fruita was getting their pictures taken and celebrating,” Baker said. “We still had a game to play and I think that fired the guys up. Lawrence (Mayberry) said a few words and when he talks, the other guys listen.”
Durango went down 3-1 early in game two, but fought back to tie the game before an offensive barrage unfolded.
Sophomore catcher Max Hyson was a one-man wrecking crew Monday and came up with the big hit in a huge fourth inning for Durango. His two-run home run gave the Demons a 5-3 lead they wouldn’t give up as Dylan Carlson got the win and Lawrence Mayberry shut the door for the save. In the two games, Hyson was 4-for-7 at the plate with a home run, a single, two doubles, three runs scored, two runs batted in and a walk. With Kyle Duran back in the Demons’ lineup and Hyson joining Mayberry, Andrew Selser, Peyton Woolverton as hot bats for Durango, they’re peaking at the right time.
The Colorado High School Activities Association will announce its playoff brackets Wednesday, and Baker is confident that Durango will have more baseball.
“I think this win and our RPI should allow us to make the postseason,” he said. “We’re going to come to practice Tuesday like we have a game to play, and I think we can do some damage down the road.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
