The Durango High School softball team won the Peak to Peak tournament in Lafayette over the weekend. The Demons won three out of four games including a staggering 32-17 victory against Eagle Valley in the championship game Saturday night.
The Demons combined to score 68 runs in the four games. Durango lost the first game 11-8 to Lincoln, defeated Peak to Peak 5-4 in the second game, dominated Platte Canyon 23-1 in the semifinals and got run after run in the 32-17 championship game win. In the final game, after Eagle Valley drove across five in the top of the first, the Demons responded with 10 runs of their own.
Emma Candeleria had a no-doubter home run in the first inning and also had a single and five runs scored. Bryn Valdez had three singles and scored five of her own runs.
“Throughout the game, Eagle Valley didn’t let up, but neither did we,” said DHS head coach Melissa Fundora. “So, every time they came back with a couple of runs, we came back with double that, so it was just huge.”
Fundora said she’s never participated in a game that high-scoring, and it will stick with her for a long time.
“It was such a fun game to be part of and to be coaching. I’ve never been a part of anything like that, and to have such a high scoring game, it was amazing.”
The Durango boys tennis team got back to winning ways Saturday morning with a tight 4-3 victory against Grand Junction Central in Grand Junction.
After losing to Fruita Monument and Vail Mountain on Friday, the Demons (2-3) rebounded with their second win over Grand Junction Central of the season. Durango got wins at the Nos. 1-3 singles slots as well as the fourth doubles team.
Will Lammons continued his stellar weekend at the No. 1 singles slot, winning in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. At the No. 2 spot, Durango got a victory from Elias Fiddler, battling to a 6-2 6-7 (4-7) and 7-6 (10-6) in the third set tiebreaker. Noah Pritchard also recorded a victory at the No. 3 slot winning in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. The Demons’ No. 4 doubles combination of Calan Barnhart and Andy Rodriguez won the match for the Demons 6-2, 6-2.
Head coach Alan Batiste thought the weekend was a success despite not knowing the exact lineup yet.
“They responded back really well after Fruita yesterday, and that was a tough loss,” Batiste said. “They responded really well this morning. We got a good warm up in and all of the games were really close. We’re still kind of waiting on our full lineup, but the boys represented well this weekend, even though we were down a few kids.”
The Demons will play at Steamboat Springs at 3 p.m. Friday. The following morning, the Demons will take part in the Western Slope Invitational in Grand Junction.
bploen@durangoherald.com
