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Montrose baseball rallies past Durango in late innings

Durango falls again, falters late vs. Montrose

It was a slow start Tuesday and an inability to close Friday that have led to two tough losses this week for the Durango Demons.

The Durango High School baseball team carried a 4-1 lead into the sixth inning at home Friday against Montrose at Walden Memorial Field. After playing five clean innings defensively and receiving two more home runs and three runs batted in from senior shortstop Casey Dunlap, the Demons appeared poised to pick up their first win of the Southwestern League schedule.

But the Demons (4-7, 0-3 SWL) couldn’t hold off the potent Indians lineup, as Montrose (8-3, 1-2 SWL) scored four runs in the sixth inning and another five in the seventh to put the game away and take a 10-4 victory.

It was the fourth consecutive loss for DHS.

“I think we came out pretty good, started off hitting the ball pretty well,” said Dunlap, who was 4-for-4 with two home runs, one double and three runs batted in. “Toward the end it stopped, and they started hitting us. We just need to put a full game together, and I think we’ll be good.”

DHS senior starting pitcher Hayden Sill pitched five strong innings before the Indians could figure him out. But once Montrose heated up, it didn’t cool off.

After a Brayden Reese leadoff walk in the sixth, Kam Devincenti delivered a single to put runners on first and third with no outs. Joe Kastendiec followed with a two-run single to cut DHS’ lead to 4-3 with no outs in the top of the sixth.

Josue Perez came through with another single, and a Cayden James RBI-single brought home the tying run a batter later. Designated hitter Joey Eckerman then came through with a run-scoring sacrifice fly to give Montrose the lead for the inning’s first out, and Sill settled back in to get out of the inning with his team trailing only 5-4.

But the seventh inning cost the Demons a chance to make up for it in the bottom of the seventh, as they gave up five runs on five hits and two fielding errors.

A weak grounder was hit back to Sill on the mound by Montrose’s Kurtis McCall, who hustled down the line to first base. Sill’s throw was a bit high, and the first-base umpire ruled DHS first baseman Dayne Rowley pulled his foot off the bag as he received the throw.

Devincenti took advantage and drove McCall home with an RBI-single two batters later, and Kastendiec ripped another single before DHS head coach Eric Baker relieved Sill with Dylan Carlson.

Perez immediately hit a two-run double off Carlson, and a DHS throwing error allowed another run to score before DHS could record a third out.

“I thought our at-bats really weren’t horrible,” Montrose head coach Landon Wareham said of the Indians’ early innings. “We were a little strung out, and credit to (Sill), he’s pretty good.

“We made an adjustment and strung some hits together there late.”

In all, Montrose finished with 12 hits to Durango’s eight. The Demons only had two hits after the third inning, both by Dunlap.

“We’ve already moved some things around a little bit, and we’ll think about what else we can do,” Baker said of his batting order. “Really, whoever is in front of (Dunlap) has to be on base. We’ve won the games we’ve played where guys have been on in front of him. We’ve got to get everybody contributing and doing their job, but I know it will come because the kids are fighting.”

Montrose was led by senior pitcher Kyle Freeburg, who was strong outside of Dunlap’s at-bats. He struck out eight in a complete seven innings. He walked one and hit two batters.

“We’ve been trying to get through his head that he has good stuff and needs to go out and compete and challenge hitters, and that’s what he did for us (Friday),” Wareham said of Freeburg.

DHS has played this losing stretch without senior outfielder Zac Gasaway, a Division I signee to the University of San Francisco. He has been injured, and DHS suffered another injury in Friday’s game – senior Christopher Jaworsky went down in the batter’s box with a knee injury after hitting a groundball to shortstop in the fifth inning. He is the second DHS player to suffer a knee injury in the batter’s box in the last year.

Baker said losing Jaworsky affected his team’s attitude the rest of the game.

“Losing Jaworsky at the plate affected the mentality of the kids, and our enthusiasm waned a bit,” Baker said. “I’m wondering if something is jinxed, because that whole batter’s circle has some issue to it. It’s scary when you see the look of pain on a kid’s face. It’s worrisome.”

Without Gasaway and Jaworsky, DHS will be hurting depth-wise at 1 p.m. Saturday at home against Grand Junction.

“Somebody has to step up, that’s the name of the game,” Baker said. “We’ve got some good kids, but we’re thin.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com

Apr 10, 2015
Durango’s Casey Dunlap putting on a home-run clinic


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