Surprised somewhat that pitchers Cesar Pedregon and Holland Roukema had held visiting Dove Creek hitless through six innings of 2A/1A San Juan Basin League baseball Tuesday, Ignacio head coach Don Hayes wasn’t surprised at how the Bulldogs broke up the combined no-hitter.
“Fundamental baseball, you know?” he said. “They (the Bobcats) played deep, and he put a good bunt down. Rendon (third baseman Mestas) made a good throw, and ... we didn’t get (the out). But the game was still going.”
And to his chagrin, going more and more in favor of the fifth-ranked guests.
After eight-hole hitter Austin Beanland hustled out the aforementioned infield single off Roukema with one out, Preston Spigner struck out looking – putting DCHS one out from defeat, but bringing up the top of coach Curtis Garver’s order.
Having reached base three times already, via walks in the first and third innings, then a beanball in the fifth, senior Ryan Delano-Martinez lifted a pitch deep, but playable to left, where Bobcat junior Stephan Gomez – who’d squeezed a similar shot off Ty Smith’s stick in the visitors’ fourth – misplayed it and was fortunate not to have the ball crunch his cheek.
Beanland (1-3, R) raced around the bases to score, cutting IHS’ lead to 4-2, and Delano-Martinez hustled all the way to third. Gauge Thompson (1-3, HBP) then bounced another infield single up the third-base line, plating Delano-Martinez and slicing the winless Bobcats’ advantage down to just one run.
One run, however, ended up being enough, as Smith then grounded out to Roukema to end the early-afternoon action.
“I was a little scared. I thought I was going to miss the throw,” said Roukema (3 IP, 2H, 2R, 0BB, HB, 5Ks).
Having scored first when Delano-Martinez (0-1, 2R) crossed home plate in the opening half-inning via a Hayden Gray groundout to IHS first baseman Gabe Tucson, the Bulldogs, who then surrendered three Ignacio runs in the bottom of the first, had another opportunity to pull even when, during the top of the fourth inning, they managed to load the bases with two gone against Pedregon (W; 4IP, 0H, ER, 4BB, HB, 5Ks) before Beanland struck out.
Able to reach base only in the fourth inning via an error by then-shortstop Roukema, Gray (L; 3IP, 8H, 4R, 3ER, BB, 4Ks) finished 0-3 batting with an RBI. Sophomore Jaron Fury (0-2, BB) worked three strong innings in relief of DCHS’ starter, holding the 2A ’Cats (1-11 overall, 1-4 SJBL) to just one hit while striking out two.
Tucson went 2-3 for the victors, doubling twice and driving in three runs. Lawrence Toledo went 2-3 with a triple and a run, while Pedregon finished 1-2 with two runs and also reached via a first-inning catcher’s-interference call.
Pitting the SJBL’s two highly-ranked Class 1A crews head to head, a key date awaits Dove Creek next as the Bulldogs (11-5, 2-3) travel into Montrose County to visit No. 7 Nucla (9-5, 4-1) Saturday with doubleheader play starting at 11 a.m.
Most recently, the Mustangs stopped 2A Dolores (10-5, 3-2) by a 10-9 margin in eight innings Tuesday afternoon.