The Durango High School baseball team closed out its regular season on Saturday with a doubleheader at CHSAANow.com’s No. 3 ranked team in Class 5A, Fruita Monument.
DHS entered the game just outside of the Class 4A state tournament bubble as the No. 33 team in the CHSAA selection and seeding index. A win would have likely assured DHS a spot in the state tournament, but Fruita denied the Demons.
Fruita won the first game of the doubleheader 12-2 and the second game 11-1, enacting the run-rule in both contests.
DHS slipped to 9-14 overall after suffering its sixth-straight loss, and down to No. 34 in the index. The top-32 teams in the index, plus league champs, will make the regional round of the state tournament. Fruita improved to 19-2, and to No. 2 in the 5A index.
“We started off hot, but I think everyone would have liked for it to have gone different in the second half,” said DHS head coach Rob Coddington. “Unfortunately that’s the game of baseball, and handling adversity is part of life.”
In Game 1, Fruita took a 5-0 lead in the first inning, but DHS responded with two runs in the top of the second. Jack Englund hit a 2-RBI double, bringing home Tanner Coddington and Brady Hansen, to get Durango on the scoreboard.
The Demons, however, were unable to score anymore runs in the game, while Fruita plated two in the second, four in the fourth and one in the fifth to enact the five-inning run rule.
Fruita took an early lead in the second game, too. The Wildcats led 8-0 after three innings and enacted the run rule with two scores in the sixth.
DHS was held to just three hits in the game but was able to manufacture a run in the fifth. Lane Greenlee reached with single and JJ Hoerl drove him in.
DHS also struggled in the field, committing six errors in Game 2 and three in Game 1.
Tagert Bardin and Tanner Coddington took the losses on the mound.
Durango will now have to wait and see if it’s selected for the regional round 4A tournament, which begins on Friday, but the chances of DHS being selected are slim.
