For the first time in over a decade, the Durango High School baseball team won a regional playoff game and it definitely wasn’t easy on the Demons’ fans’ heart rates.
No. 19 seed Durango was locked in a back-and-forth battle with No. 14 Summit all Saturday afternoon and emerged from the thriller with a 15-12 victory after nine innings.
The Demons and the Tigers, competing in the 4A Region 3 Regional at Lewis-Palmer High School, couldn’t build any lead on each other for most of the game. Then Durango found its power near the end.
Senior Jack Englund hit a two-run homer to put Durango up 8-7 in the top of the seventh. Then freshman Cole Clark hit a three-run homer to put the Demons up 12-8 and Durango went into the bottom of the seventh up four.
Then the Demons got a little sloppy in the bottom of the seventh. Summit loaded the bases and tied the game at 12 and the teams headed for extra innings.
Durango pulled away in the top of the ninth with two base hits to go up 15-12. The Demons’ pitching came up clutch at the most important time to hold on to the victory.
The victory was Durango’s first regional playoff win since 2014 and moved the Demons to 14-8 overall. Summit finished its season 17-7 overall after it was outhit 21-9 against Durango.
Junior Dylan Burns was on fire at the plate, leading the Demons with five hits in six at-bats. Junior Austin Romero was 4-6 at bat and Englund was 3-5.
Fellow junior Sam Clark pitched 4.2 innings for the Demons and had four strikeouts while allowing two hits and three runs. Junior Dawson McInnes pitched 2.2 innings and struck out four batters while allowing zero runs and hits.
The Demons advanced to play No. 3 Lewis-Palmer in the regional championship on Saturday afternoon. The Rangers beat No. 30 Rifle 5-0 earlier in the day in its opening game of the regional bracket.
Results from the Durango vs. Lewis-Palmer matchup were unavailable at press time.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
