When the top two baseball teams in 4A meet for a pivotal showdown at the end of the regular season, lots of runs and hits are expected from the high-powered offenses, but that’s not what happened when No. 1 Palisade visited No. 2 Durango on Friday.
Defense dominated the day, as Palisade’s Danyel Ishida-Farmer and Durango’s Coen Anderson threw great games on the mound, not allowing the opposing offense to get into any rhythm. When Palisade did get a hit into play on Anderson, Durango’s defense was superb with its timing and accuracy to get the runners out. Durango just couldn’t find that hit at the right time behind a stellar home crowd on a beautiful day.
The difference in the game was a sacrifice bunt in the third inning to get Palisade on the board. Both teams scored the fewest runs in their seasons, but Palisade was victorious, keeping its league title hopes alive with one game remaining.
“This was a great game,” Durango head coach Masen Hibbeler said. “We’ve won games with high scores, and we’ve won games with low scores … For it to come out at 1-0 was an interesting one, but it shows how both sides compete, and both sides belong at the top.”
Durango dropped to 16-6 overall and 7-2 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League with the loss. The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Demons. The Demons outhit the Bulldogs, 6-5. It was only the third time Durango has allowed a run or less in the game. It’s the first time Durango has been shutout this season and the first time since May 3, 2024.
Senior Landin “Bubba” Padilla led the Demons at bat, going 3-3. Senior Austin Romero went 2-3 at bat for Durango. Anderson pitched over six innings, finishing with three strikeouts and five hits allowed.
Palisade improved to 19-3 overall and 7-2 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League with its eighth consecutive win. Ishida-Farmer led the Bulldogs’ hitting, going 2-3 at bat, and he pitched all seven innings. The left-hander finished with six strikeouts and six hits allowed.
“We tuned up for it,” Hibbeler said about Ishida-Farmer. “We did the best we could. We knew he was really crafty coming in, arguably one of the best in the league, but I got to talk about Cohen Anderson. He held them to one run on a squeeze bunt. So, it was a hell of a matchup between the two of those kids.”
Durango started the game with three quick outs, including a smooth force out at first to end the top of the inning. The Demons looked poised to score in the bottom of the first. Senior Dylan Burns got on base with his line drive, but Ishida-Farmer picked him off. Durango got two more runners on base, but Ishida-Farmer struck out a batter to end the inning.
Palisade started the second inning swinging, with a double to center field on the first pitch from Anderson. The Bulldogs got that runner to third through a sacrifice bunt, but he was unable to score as he was chased down and tagged trying to steal home.
The Bulldogs got their first batter on base in the third inning via a walk. That Bulldog got to third after his teammate hit a line-drive single. Then, another sacrifice bunt let the runner on third reach home, breaking the tie and putting Palisade up 1-0. The Bulldogs’ next batter walked, but DHS was able to prevent any more runs as a high foul ball was caught for the third out.
“A sacrifice bun is the hardest thing to defend when executed the right way,” Hibbeler said. “We did a good job of getting outs, and when they presented it, we took care of the ball.”
Burns started the top of the fourth with a running catch of a driven ball. Anderson got a Palisade hitter swinging, completing only the second strikeout. The Bulldogs grounded near third base to end the top of the fourth.
Three good throws by Durango on three consecutive grounders made the top of the fifth go by as fast as the speed of light. The bottom of the fifth wasn’t much slower with Ishida-Farmer dealing from the mound with two strikeouts to end the inning.
Padilla played an excellent game at shortstop, throwing lasers to first to ensure every grounder that went to him was an out.
“Bubba Padilla, big time players show up in big time games, and he’s definitely one of them,” Hibbeler said. “As a whole, there are no errors on the board on both sides, and that makes for a great game.”
Padilla got on base, but Anderson struck out to end the bottom of the sixth. Durango entered the danger zone at the top of the seventh. Ishida-Farmer got on base, then stole to second and a mishandled pitch got him to third with zero outs. Hibbeler decided it was time to make a change after Anderson’s strikeout, putting Romero on the mound.
“His pitch count was high, and he wasn’t locating all of his pitches at that point,” Hibbeler said about Anderson. “So we wanted to bring a fresh set of eyes in there late in the game and see what we could get out of it.”
Romero’s first pitch was hit, but the Demons got the runner at third out, and nearly got the double play as Hibbeler was moving toward the official after the safe call at second. Romero struck out the final batter to get into the bottom of the seventh down one.
After Romero got on base with a hit, the Demons couldn’t advance him as Ishida-Farmer struck out two of the last three batters to end the game.
Durango and Palisade play for the league title at DHS on Saturday at 11 a.m. to wrap up the regular season.