Once in a while, someone on the Bayfield High School baseball team will bring it up.
“Oh, remember last year, don’t let that happen again,” the Wolverines will say.
Bayfield’s loss to No. 28 La Junta in last season’s district tournament has permeated the Wolverines’ preparation for this postseason, though not always overtly.
“It’s almost like it doesn’t need to be said, but we still bring it up,” BHS junior Taed Heydinger, son of Chris and Tim Heydinger, said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald.
Now the district tournament has rolled around again, and BHS is hosting the CHSAA Class 3A District 7 tournament Saturday in Bayfield.
The Wolverines earned the No. 3 seed and will play No. 30 Trinidad at 10 a.m. Saturday. No. 14 Sheridan and No. 19 Buena Vista face off at 12:30 p.m. in Bayfield in the bracket’s other game. The first-round winners will play for a spot in the state tournament at 3 p.m.
BHS (16-4) knows better than to pencil itself into the district final after what happened last year, no matter what the number next to its name says.
“We’re taking each game a lot more serious than we did last year,” BHS senior Matthew Knickerbocker, son of Kirk and Marie Knickebrocker, said in a phone interview with The Herald. “Last year we thought we were going to beat the two teams we had to play and go on to state. We’re not taking anything for granted.”
The Wolverines aren’t underestimating any of their opponents, but they don’t know much about whom they’re playing either. BHS shares only two common opponents with the three teams visiting Saturday.
Trinidad (6-13) lost 16-3 to Pueblo County, a Class 4A team BHS beat 11-5, and Buena Vista handled Bayfield’s Intermountain League foe Monte Vista 10-0.
“We’re expecting a pretty solid team,” Heydinger said of Trinidad. “They seem like they’re pretty well-rounded.”
The Miners boast a .303 team batting average and 6.27 team earned-run average. Darian Lujan leads Trinidad with 17 runs batted in. No one on Trinidad’s roster has hit a home run this season.
Buena Vista (10-9) will bring the toughest opposing pitching staff to BHS with an ERA of 2.93. Trevor Close, who used to live in Bayfield, has hit three of the Demons’ four team home runs this season.
Sheridan (13-6) features Donovan Contreraz, who is hitting .491 on the season with 14 RBIs and seven triples, which leads Class 3A.
“They’re all big football schools, so they’re tough kids that’ll come to battle,” said BHS senior Kelton McCoy, son of Derek and Loreca McCoy, in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “They don’t have anything to lose, and we have everything to lose.”
Compare that to a Wolverines’ lineup that ranks second in Class 3A in run production, scoring 235 runs this year. BHS junior catcher Kelton McCoy leads Class 3A in batting average (.594), home runs (10), RBIs (46) and slugging percentage (1.202).
Knickerbocker also leads 3A in runs scored with 38 and is tied for second in RBIs with 34 and third in home runs with five. His ERA (1.09) is the fifth-best in Class 3A.
The Wolverines feature three of the top five RBI leaders and two of the top five run scorers.
Now if the weather will cooperate. Four of the eight 3A district tournaments have been postponed because of heavy rain across the state.
“I am worried about the weather because I heard it’s supposed to snow (Saturday),” Knickerbocker said. “I hope everything stays nice so we can get our games in. Once we’re done, it can snow, rain, do whatever it wants.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
