The start of 4A/5A Southwestern League play proved difficult for the Durango baseball team. The Demons had a season-low one run in their 3-1 loss Friday afternoon at home against Grand Junction.
Durango fell to 8-5 overall and 0-1 in the 4A/5A SWL with the loss while Grand Junction improved to 9-6 overall and 2-1 in the 4A/5A SWL with the win.
“That's a tough one to lose, that’s a good baseball team over there,” Durango head coach Austin Anderson said. “We had a good baseball team, you could tell in a 3-1 ballgame. There's not much you could have asked for from our team, except a little bit more timely hitting. But really, that's the game of baseball. It comes down to those few moments. Both teams did well defensively. Austin (Romero) pitched great.”
Anderson was also proud of the team’s camaraderie against Grand Junction.
Durango junior Cully Feeney had one hit and one RBI. Sophomore Dawson McInnes had a hit and scored the lone run. Sophomores Austin Romero, Dylan Burns, Tate Rose and Landin Padilla each had a hit and so did senior Ian Szura.
Grand Junction’s Will Applegate led the Tigers with two hits a run and an RBI.
Romero pitched six innings and had three strikeouts and gave up five hits and three runs. Szura pitched the last inning.
“Austin pitched great,” Anderson said. “He was locked in from the go. Austin loves to be the guy up there. The whole team feeds off that. We played better defense, we hit better. It's a great guy to have in the locker room and to stand up on the mound and know that everybody has his back. So he was locked in. I’m super proud of him.”
Brett Woytek pitched all seven innings for Grand Junction and had nine strikeouts while allowing seven hits and one run.
Grand Junction got off to a 1-0 lead after the first inning and Durango tied it 1-1 after McInnes scored in the bottom of the second. But the Tigers were able to stretch their lead to 3-1 at the top of the fourth.
At the start of the bottom of the fourth, Szura was hit by a pitch and advanced to first base. With two outs, Feeney hit a low-driven ball to center field and was thrown out at first base to end the inning.
Sean Witt for Grand Junction hit a nice ball deep center to start the fifth but Rose made a nice running catch for the out. Romero threw one which was hit high and to center and was caught for a third out and a super quick half inning with Grand Junction up 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth.
Burns hit one down the third base line but the Grand Junction third baseman made an error and Burns advanced to first.
At the next at-bat, Rose hit one over the shortstop and into center field. Burns tried to make it to third but the Grand Junction center fielder threw a dart to third and Burns was tagged out. Durango then grounded out for a third out and Grand Junction led 3-1 after the fifth inning.
With a 2-2 count, Romero threw one that was hit right to second base and Padilla threw the Grand Junction batter out at first for the second out. Romero then threw some heat and struck out the Tigers’ batter for the third out to finish the top of the sixth.
Woytek had a 2-0 count against Padilla but after two balls Padilla hit one to center field and got to first base.
Szura hit one down the left side and over the third baseman’s head to get on base at the next at-bat and advanced to first base. McInnes hit a bouncer in between second and third but was barely thrown out at first for the second out. Padilla advanced to third and Szura advanced to second. Woytek had Feeney on a 2-2 count and struck him out to finish the sixth inning with Grand Junction up 3-1.
“I don't know if it was a bad day for our hitters,” Anderson said. “We outhit them 7-5, we probably averaged our hit total for a game. The runs just didn't come with the hits. That's what I touched base on earlier, the timely hitting wasn't there.”
For the seventh inning, Szura took over at the mound and Romero moved to third. Anderson said he wanted to preserve Romero’s arm and give Grand Junction a different look.
Szura had the Grand Junction batter at a 2-2 count and the Tiger drove one deep but was caught by the Demons’ center fielder for the third out at the top of the seventh down 3-1.
Ro Rypkema hit one high to right field which was caught easily for the first out. Woytek continued to pitch and find success against Demon batters and struck out Burns for the second out. Woytek then got Rose in a 2-0 count before two straight balls. He struck out Tate Rose for the final out and ended the game.
“He got a lot of early strikes on us,” Anderson said about Woytek. “That makes us dig out of a hole. Sometimes that's just how it goes. Sometimes we could have had a little bit better plate approaches. There were a lot of two-strike high fastballs out of the zone we couldn't hit. Our guys like to swing it and they were aggressive and they just couldn't catch up to it or they were under it.”
The Demons are back in action Saturday at 11 a.m. at home against Grand Junction.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
