Journal Staff Report

Dolores County slipped. Fortunately for the Bulldogs it was a nonconference varsity baseball game against San Juan High at Blanding, Utah. The Bulldogs fell 12-11 in nine innings.

However, the must forget about their nine errors and play smart because they open San Juan League play at no. 1 ranked Nucla at 11 a.m. today, April 8.

"If we can forget about all those errors we made at Blanding, I think we will play them a good game," Dolores County High School head coach Ken Soper said. "We have just got to go out and play like we’re capable of playing."

The Bulldogs, 8-2, did not play well the first three innings, falling behind 5-0.

"We couldn’t do anything right. We played like we didn’t care. We played with no enthusiasm," Soper added.

The Bulldogs came up with a run in the fourth. But the Broncos pushed four runs over the plate in the bottom of the inning. San Juan led 9-1 after four complete innings.

"Finally, we caught fire. We scored twice in the fifth and then six times in the sixth to to tie it. I was really proud of them for coming back from that large of a deficit," he added.

Both teams scored twice in the seventh to tie it at 11-all. But what made Soper upset was that with two outs the Broncos made their rally. Neither team scored in the eighth. DCHS did not score in the top of the ninth. With two outs a pop fly was dropped. The Broncos made a couple hits and the game was over. Soper said he was not pleased with the way his team played in the ninth.

Soper was pleased with the squad’s hitting. They finished with 15 hits. Terence Gardner had a three hits including a double. Keith Pierce hit three times. Dallas Coker, Chris Kail, and Justin Wyatt all collected two hits each. The Broncos finished with 18 hits.