Close enough hasn’t been cutting it for the Durango High School baseball team.

The Demons lost another one-run game Friday at the Piedra Vista Invitational in Farmington, as Los Alamos took advantage of timely hits and poor Durango defense to win 4-3. The loss is the fourth in a row for Durango after it clobbered Eagle Valley 16-1 to open the season. Three of the four losses have come in one-run games, and the Demons have held the lead late in each of those losses.

Dylan Carlson did his job on the mound for 6 2/3 innings allowing just one earned run and eight hits. Lawrence Mayberry went 2-for-4 at the plate, and Zach Szura was 1-for-3 with two runs batted in.

“It was another game in which we had plenty of opportunities to win but couldn’t get the big hit,” Durango head coach Eric Baker said in a voicemail to The Durango Herald. “We were right there, and we had a great pitching effort from Carlson, we just couldn’t get it to go our way at the end.”

The Demons (1-4) went ahead 3-1 heading into the final two innings after Szura’s single plated two and broke a 1-1 tie. The Hilltoppers were held to one run in the sixth inning, as Carlson snuck out of a jam and the Demons clung to a one-run lead.

Los Alamos (5-5) went ahead with two runs in the top of the seventh that gave the Hilltoppers their first lead of the game. Durango couldn’t force extra innings in the last at-bat and dropped its second game in as many days in New Mexico.

The Demons will try to end the four-game slide Saturday at the Piedra Vista Invitational at Ricketts Park. Durango will face Valencia at 9 a.m.

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