Durango High School’s baseball team rallied from four runs down to tie the game, fell back down by two runs, made one more charge to take a two-run lead, then held off a seventh-inning push to beat rival Bayfield 8-7 on Tuesday at DHS.
“That’s part of the tough thing about baseball, you never know when the eruption is going to occur,” DHS head coach Eric Baker said. “Sometimes it’s the fourth or fifth inning and you just have to be patient and try to string some good at-bats together, and that’s what they did. I’m proud of them doing that.”
The game served as DHS’ senior day, as well as the fourth annual Strikeout Childhood Cancer Game that saw the Demons don gold jerseys.
“It definitely means a lot,” DHS senior Ryan Genualdi said of the win. “It always seems like we make it close, but it’s always fun when we pull it out.”
Bayfield got off to a great start.
Max McGhehey connected on the first pitch of the game from Durango’s Gavin Mestas for a single. In the next at-bat, Michael Gettman was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. The next at-bat, with Jake Brandon at the plate, started with a passed ball that moved the runners to second and third.
Brandon later put down a sacrifice bunt that scored McGhehey, then Hub Brandon ripped a standup triple that scored Gettman.
“They went the other way on Gavin and got some hits on us to put some pressure on us,” Baker said. “We had some balls bounce away from us, which was aggravating for us, but they put the ball in play.”
Durango got out of the inning the next at-bat with a 3-2 double play that ended with a hard tag at home from catcher Max Hyson, who received a push from Hub Brandon after the play to give the rivalry game a little more heat.
Durango had a chance to answer in the bottom of the first with Gage and Gavin Mestas on third and second base, respectively, but the Mestas brothers were stranded when Bayfield pitcher Hayden Farmer struck out Gus Kidd to get out of the inning.
The top of the second saw two more runs from the Wolverines and another violent play at the plate.
Rhett Hoover led off the inning with a double, then scored on an RBI double from Colt Salazar.
Salazar advanced to third on a passed ball, then got caught too far off the bag at third, which led to a collision with Hyson.
As Salazar barreled toward home, DHS third baseman Ryan Genualdi threw to Hyson at the plate, but the ball hit Salazar, who bulldozed Hyson and touched home for the run that made it 4-0.
“We got a warning from the umpires on that, and I just told them we had to play our game and not play into their game,” BHS interim coach Jake Forsythe said. “It was kind of instigated by them I thought. We’re better than that and we’ll move on.”
While Forsythe told the Wolverines not to let the Demons take them out of their game, a similar message and feelings about the physical play at the plate was taking place in the DHS dugout.
“We had to control our emotions,” Genualdi said. “They wanted to take us out of our game and we just had to keep our heads in it and battle back.”
Durango got one run across in the bottom of the second with an RBI single from Gage Mestas.
The Demons pulled even at 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth.
With two outs, Jordan Woolverton hit it off the end of his bat, and the ball bounced away from Bayfield’s Jake Brandon at second base. Gage Mestas then singled to put runners on the corners after a well-executed hit and run. The next at-bat ended with Ryan Genualdi belting a pitch over the fence in left field for a three-run homer.
“I definitely wanted to take one because I just wasn’t seeing the ball in the beginning,” Genualdi said. “I got a pitch I liked. I wasn’t thinking home run, I was just thinking base hit, and it turned into a home run.”
The Wolverines responded with a two-out rally of their own in the top of the fifth.
Hub Brandon got it started with a single, then stole second base to get into scoring position for Hayden Farmer, who doubled to left field to drive in Brandon. Hoover then singled to bring Farmer around and push Bayfield’s lead to 6-4.
Durango cut its deficit to one run the bottom of the fifth when senior Michael Vidunas pinch hit for Fynn Hyson and drove in Dawson Marcum from third base with an RBI single that made it a 6-5 game.
Durango took advantage of poor pitching in the sixth inning to take an 8-6 lead.
Hub Brandon walked the first two batters of the inning, then gave up a two-run double to Max Hyson that made it 7-6. Brandon walked the next batter before BHS made a change and brought in Jake Brandon to pitch.
After Kegan D’Aleo reached on an error to load the bases, Marcum hit a sacrifice fly that scored Cody Nightingale, who was courtesy running for Hyson, to push the lead to 8-6.
“We were facing a good team and we got off to the start we wanted, we just didn’t quite have that middle pitching and had a few errors that really killed us,” Forsythe said. “That was the difference in the game.”
Bayfield got it to 8-7 when a pitch in the dirt took a bounce of Max Hyson’s chest and got away, which allowed Gettman to score from third.
Hub Brandon then walked to put the tying run of base with one out. But controversy would follow, as Brandon was called out at first on a pick-off play for the second out of the inning to the dismay of the Wolverines. Farmer then flew out to center field to end the game.
Gavin Mestas pitched three innings. He gave up four runs on seven hits, no walks and hit one batter. He struck out one.
D’Aleo came on in relief to start the fourth inning and earned the win for the Demons. He pitched four innings, allowed three earned runs on four hits, one walk and struck out one.
Genualdi finished the day 1-for-3 with the three-run homer and a walk. Gavin Mestas was 2-for-2 with two singles and two walks. He had three stolen bases and one run scored.
The Demons swiped eight bases in the game. Nightingale had two in his courtesy running role, Marcum had two and Gage Mestas had one.
Hub Brandon took the loss for BHS. He pitched 2/3 of an inning, was charged with three earned runs on three hits and three walks.
Farmer ended up going 4 1/3 innings with five runs on seven hits, three walks and one hit batter. He struck out three.
Hub Brandon went 2-for-3 at the plate with a single, a triple and one walk to finish with one RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. Farmer was 1-for-3 with an RBI double and a run scored and Hoover finished the day 3-for-3 with a double, two singles, one RBI and one run scored.
The two teams will meet again Tuesday when the Wolverines host the Demons at BHS.
“We want to make the dance and make regionals, and it’s going to be tight,” Forsythe said. “We haven’t had the season we thought we’d have, but we still have everything in front of us. We need to play well against (DHS) when they come to our place next Tuesday and hopefully get a win there and not leave it in anybody else’s hands but our own.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
