Bulldogs fall to Custer County in playoffs

Bulldogs fall to Custer County in playoffs

May 10, 2001

STAFF REPORT

GUNNISON — One bad inning did in the Dolores County High School varsity baseball team in their District playoff game against Custer County here on Monday morning, May 7, in a game that was rescheduled from the previous weekend because of snow and wet grounds.

"Our famous bad inning got us," DCHS head coach Ken Soper said on Tuesday. "We made five errors and they scored six unearned runs in the fourth inning. We should have gotten out of that inning with a 3-3 ball game."

Custer County scored once in the bottom of the first and again in the bottom of the second to take a 2-0 lead. But in the bottom of the fourth with the score still 2-0, the Bulldogs started committing errors and making poor judgments. They made fielding and throwing miscues. The big blow came when pitcher David Schultz helped out his own cause and belted a three-run home run in the frame.

The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth by scoring three times. Trent Daves singled to open the rally. After a strike out, Joe Buffington and Dallas Coker each got hit by a pitch which loaded the bases. Chris Kail hit into a fielder’s choice which scored one run. Keith Pierce then stepped up and slugged a two-run double. But DCHS still trailed 8-3. Custer County added one more run in the bottom of the inning to salt the game away.

Schultz went the distance on the mound. He struck out eight batters and walked only three. Dallas Coker started and worked three and a third before being relieved by Dallas Daves. Coker took the loss.

In the other playoff games played that day, Nucla defeated Cotopaxi 5-1 but lost Custer County 9-6 for seeding into the Regional Finals. Incidentally, the Mustangs lost twice earlier during the regular season to Custer County 7-4 and 14-8.

The Bulldogs finished the season with a 13-8 overall record. The Bobcats improved to 17-2 and will advance to this weekend’s 2A Regional Finals (Friday) and if they win then they play in the State semifinals and finals (Saturday) at Spurgeon Field in Colorado Springs.

"I guess it is always good when you have a winning season. We did get to go to the second round of the playoffs. But in a way it was still a disappointing season. I thought we had better players than who would show up. We had that one bad inning where we made a lot of errors and teams would score a lot of unearned runs. Our pitchers gave up too many free passes (walks and hit batsmen). We did not have that strike out pitcher when we needed one. It just an up and down season," Soper reported.