Bayfield outlasts Dove Creek for Shiprock title

Bayfield outlasts Dove Creek for Shiprock title

April 3, 2001

A bright spot in an otherwise dismal day

KYLE KRAFKA (40) of the Dolores County High School varsity baseball team gets a hit during action Saturday against Bayfield in the championship game of the Shiprock Invitational Baseball Tournament at SHS Field. The Wolverines beat the Bulldogs 25-18. The two teams play again today at Weber Park in Dove Creek.

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

SHIPROCK, N.M. — It should have been a great baseball game Saturday afternoon, in the finals of the Shiprock Invitational Baseball Tournament at SHS Field. Bayfield had defeated Dolores County 5-4 only a week before in the second game of the Cortez JV Invitational Tournament. And now the teams were meeting again. Both had their ace pitchers throwing. More than 3 1/2 hours and 43 runs later, Bayfield had taken a 25-18 win over DCHS in the championship game.

DCHS head coach Ken Soper did not have a comment after that "so-called" baseball game which little resembled that sport.

Oh, there was plenty of hitting and run scoring. But both teams made error after error and mental mistake after mental mistake. And the starting pitchers just threw up tosses instead of really pitching.

Perhaps one of the best plays of the day came in the first inning. DCHS center field Keith Pierce reached over the outfield fence for a great catch and robbed a three-run home run from Bayfield’s Devon Catron.

The Bulldogs scored their first run of the game, unearned of course, in the bottom of the first when Chris Kail reached on an error and later scored. Bayfield put four runs on the scoreboard in the top of the second. Two errors in that inning were made by the Bulldogs. Dove Creek added a run in the bottom of the second when Dallas Daves got hit by a pitch and later scored on a single by Brandon Neely.

Bayfield pushed two across the plate in the top of the third. Again two errors by DCHS played a key role. Dove Creek went up 7-6 with five runs in the bottom of that frame. Joe Buffington ripped a two-run triple in that rally. The Wolverines sent 12 batters to the plate and scored eight runs in the top of the fourth. DCHS committed two mistakes in that inning. Pete Grajalva belted a two-run double.

DCHS came back in the bottom of the fourth with three runs. DCHS took advantage of several Bayfield errors. Pierce, Terence Gardner and Kyle Krafka all knocked in runs. Bayfield led 13-10.

Bayfield scored once in the top of the fifth but DCHS retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the stanza. DCHS capitalized on two BHS errors. The Wolverines scored four times in the sixth and broke the game wide open with seven in the top of the seventh. Dove Creek scored four times in the sixth and went down one, two, three in the seventh.

Gardner started but was relieved by Pierce and Buffington. Pierce was tagged with the loss. Rory Martinez started on the mound for Bayfield and was relieved by Catron in the fourth. Catron picked up the win.

Dove Creek finished the game, on a bright note, with 14 hits while Bayfield had 16. Dolores County left five runners on bases while Bayfield stranded 11.

The Bulldogs advanced to the championship game by nipping Farmington C-team 8-7 on Friday morning, March 30. Bayfield crushed host Shiprock 14-1 in its semifinal contest.

Farmington scored a run in the top of the seventh and had the tying and winning runs on first and second when the Bulldogs got out of the inning. Dallas Coker, the winning starting pitcher the day before against Kirtland-Central JVs, came on in relief and picked up the win. Dallas Daves was credited with the win after he worked six-plus innings. Tyrell Curtis did a good job in coming in relief.

After the young Scorpions took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. The Bulldogs came back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The big hit of that inning was an RBI triple by Daves. DCHS went ahead 6-1 by pushing three more runs across the dish in the bottom of the third. In that frame, Pierce had a Texas League RBI single and Krafka knocked in a pair of runs with a single.

Farmington cut the lead to 6-3 in the third with a pair of runs. Kytt McLaughlin, starting pitcher for FHS, helped himself out with a two-run single. The Scorps added another run in the top of the fifth and another in the sixth. Dove Creek, meanwhile, scored twice in the bottom of the fifth. Gardner and Daves both scored off errors.

It certainly is ironic that Bayfield will travel to meet Dove Creek at 2 p.m. today, April 3. In other action today, Dolores hosts Ignacio at 2 p.m. at Gonzales Field at Joe Rowell Park. Durango visits Montezuma-Cortez at 4 p.m. today at Englehart Field.