One of the hottest lineups in the state kept mashing the baseball Tuesday when Durango High School worked past cross-county foe Bayfield for a run-rule victory.
Gage Mestas led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and scored two batters later when Elias Fiddler drove him home with a single. Cleanup hitter Jordan Stanley then belted a two-run home run for his second long ball of the season. Chase Robertson followed with a mammoth homer to right field to give the host Demons a quick 4-0 lead.
DHS (6-0) kept pouring it on en route to a 14-3 victory against the visiting Bayfield Wolverines (5-2).
“That was good for us to give a little punch in the face in the first inning,” said Robertson. “Everyone in this lineup is doing their job right now; keep moving runners over and doing what we need to do in the box. I’m proud of all of us.”
Robertson’s solo home run, the first over-the-fence homer of his varsity career, was pulled to right field. It would carry over the river trail and trees lining Junction Creek and was lost for good, likely after splashing into the creek well beyond the fence.
“I thought it was too high to go out, so I put my head down and ran,” Robertson said. “I didn’t even feel it go off the bat, so that was a really nice feeling.”
Bayfield was able to come back to make it a 4-3 game in the top of the second inning, when DHS starting pitcher Ty Martinez struggled a bit with his command.
After a leadoff double by Noah Chamblee, Martinez was able to get two outs around a hit batter and a walk. But with the bases loaded, Martinez would hit Andrew Monger with a pitch to bring Chamblee in to score. Then, Cade Carlson ripped a two-run single to get BHS within a run.
Martinez would be relieved by Cal Walsh in the third inning. Martinez allowed the three runs on two hits, a walk and the two hit batters. He struck out two.
Having not thrown an inning yet this season, Walsh was impressive with plenty of high heat that kept the Wolverines chasing. In two innings, he struck out four and allowed just one hit.
“We’re in a weird spot with four games this week, and it was a close game in that spot when Cal came in,” DHS head coach Rob Coddington said. “He hadn’t worked yet this year on the mound, and it was a great spot for him to come in and work. We kept his pitch count low, so if we have to come back to him this week we can.”
Ben Finneseth would close out the game on the mound for DHS. The senior allowed one hit and struck out one.
Stanley had an RBI single for DHS in the bottom of the second to score Walsh and give the Demons a 5-3 lead. It was part of his big 3-for-3 day at the plate that saw him finish a triple shy of the cycle.
“We wanted to set a tone early in this one, and we did that,” said Stanley. “I got a curveball hanging over the middle in a hitter’s count in that first inning and took a big swing at it. In the second, I was just able to lift one to the outfield to score us another.”
The bottom of the order for DHS would start a nine-run third inning. A Finneseth leadoff triple on a ball misjudged by the Bayfield center fielder led him to score on a Jack Benner RBI single. Mestas then had an RBI double to score Benner and give DHS a 7-3 lead.
DHS was only getting started. Elias Fiddler, who hit two homers in the Saturday sweep of Grand Junction, then sat back and lifted a first-pitch curveball over the head of the Bayfield third baseman to score Mestas before Stanley had an RBI double.
Niko Mestas then came to the plate and delivered a two-run double, and Robertson followed with an RBI triple. Finneseth would get back to the plate and hit a double for his second extra-base hit of the inning, and then he would score on a single from Thomas Barnes before DHS was done in the frame.
Proud all season of Durango’s two-strike hitting, Coddington was also impressed Tuesday by his team’s aggressiveness to jump on first pitches
“We hit a lot and talk approach a lot. We also have five or six good hitting coaches working with our guys at all the levels. It’s just fun to see the kids respond,” Coddington said. “We preach getting after it early when you see your pitch and then go to work with two strikes. The guys are doing a great job of that right now, and hopefully we keep those bats rolling.”
Stanley would get a chance in the fourth inning to complete the cycle but would be hit by the first pitch he saw to send him to first.
“I was trying to hit for the cycle,” Stanley said. “But one of my coaches told me to try to just hit a home run again because then I’d get to pass by third. I thought that was pretty funny, but I didn’t get my chance.”
Chamblee had two of the four hits in the game for the Wolverines, as he ripped line drives down both foul lines.
DHS entered the game still ranked well outside the top 10 in the Class 4A coaches poll conducted by CHSAA. The Demons would rank 19th. But DHS also entered Tuesday third in the Class 4A Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) standings.
DHS (2-0 5A/4A Southwestern League) will get a chance to face a Class 4A top-10 team this weekend when it visits No. 10 Montrose (4-2, 0-2 SWL) on Saturday.
While Coddington likes to see his team fly under the radar in the rankings, the red-hot Demons believe they will be impossible to ignore going into postseason play.
“Currently, I would put our batting order, one through nine, against any pitcher in the state,” Stanley said. “I feel confident saying that because all of our guys have faced really good pitching across the nation and are all eager to face the best of the best.
“On top of that, our pitchers are trusting our defense more than they ever have because the defense is making plays behind them. We’re definitely being slept on, but we’re OK with that. We show the state how we play, and it’s up to them to decide how they want to rank us.”
Before DHS can get to Montrose, it will host Farmington at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a makeup game after the Scorpions were forced to postpone a doubleheader at DHS earlier this season because of COVID-19 issues. Wednesday will feature only one game. DHS will visit Farmington for the second game June 1.
“Farmington and Montrose are going to be really well coached,” Coddington said. “We should be tested with Farmington. Montrose, they’re young, but coach (Landon) Wareham always has those guys ready. We’re not taking anybody lightly at all.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
