For the first time since 2021, the Durango High School baseball team won’t have to travel to begin its playoff journey.
Head coach Masen Hibbeler took over a team that hadn’t won a league game in 2024. Two years later, the Demons will host the 4A Region 3 regional on Saturday with the hopes of getting back to the state tournament.
The Demons earned the No. 3 seed in the 4A regional playoffs. The top eight teams in Colorado High School Activities Association’s (CHSAA) Selection & Seeding Index will each host a regional. Thirty-two teams made regionals, and each regional winner will play in the eight-team state bracket.
Durango will play No. 30 Conifer at 1 p.m. On the other side of the regional bracket, No. 14 Fort Morgan and No. 19 Cheyenne Mountain will play each other at 10 a.m. to begin the day at DHS.
Winning streaks and consecutive losses have defined Durango’s season so far. At 16-7 overall and 7-3 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League, the Demons have surpassed their win total from last season. Durango started this season with blowout losses to Piedra Vista and Cleveland, two of the top three teams in New Mexico, according to MaxPreps.
Then, the Demons won five consecutive games before losing to Ponderosa and Falcon. Falcon enters the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in 4A and Ponderosa is the No. 15 seed. Durango then won its next four games, before a slip up at Grand Junction Central, and then won its next seven games after that.
Durango had a chance to take the No. 1 overall seed with its final two regular-season games at home against No. 1 Palisade for the league title last weekend. Palisade won 1-0 on Friday and 9-8 on Saturday to capture the league title and take the No. 1 seed into regionals.
Hitting hasn’t been a problem for the Demons this year, with six batters with a batting average 0.400. Senior shortstop Landin “Bubba” Padilla leads the team at 0.467, with senior Dawson McInnes and junior Coen Anderson not far behind at 0.466. McInnes leads the team in hits and RBIs. Durango has a lot of hitters with the potential to blast one out of the park, with nine players having hit a home run.
Anderson has had a strong season as the team’s starter on the mound with a 5-1 record, a 5.01 ERA and he leads the team with 35 strikeouts. McInnes has a 3.37 ERA and is second on the team with 22 strikeouts. Senior Austin Romero and sophomore Cole Clark are also valuable members of the bullpen with Romero’s 6.24 ERA and Clark’s 6.32 ERA.
McInnes is the one to watch after he had to leave the final Palisade game with an elbow injury suffered while pitching.
Conifer enters the matchup 12-10 overall, and it finished 5-4 in the 4A/3A Jeffco League. The Lobos have been up and down this season, with their best winning streak of four. Conifer lost its last three games of the regular season. A lot of Conifer’s losses have been blowouts; six of their 10 losses in the regular season were by 10+ runs. The Demons and Lobos have no common opponents, but Conifer did lose to a top team like Durango, No. 2 Golden, 11-1, on May 7.
Like Durango, the Lobos have a veteran group with 11 seniors. Conifer’s best hitter in its lineup is senior Andrew Janasiewicz (No. 14) with a 0.397 batting average. Senior Nick Giefer (No. 11) isn’t far behind at .383 and fellow senior Parker VanDuyn (No. 24) is the team’s power hitter with four home runs and a 0.367 batting average.
Senior Brandon Roe (No.7) is the team’s starter with a 4-3 record and a 4.35 ERA. Sophomore McKade Tracy (No. 26) is second on the team with nine appearances, a 3-2 record and a 6.10 ERA.
If Durango takes care of Conifer, it will meet the winner of the Fort Morgan vs. Cheyenne Mountain game at 4 p.m. for a chance to go to state.
Fort Morgan enters the regional 16-7 overall after it finished 6-4 in the 4A/3A/2A Patriot League. The Mustangs started the season 7-1 before losing three of their next five games. Fort Morgan has been in a lot of blowout games, with 10 wins of 10+ runs and two of its seven losses by 10+ runs.
The Mustangs’ top hitter is junior Cooper Chisum (No. 11) at 0.488, and senior Jadin Carrera (No. 5) is the other Mustang over 0.400 at 0.429. Chisum is also the team’s best pitcher with a 7-2 record, a 1.92 ERA and 59 strikeouts. Senior JJ Marquez (No.3) has 11 appearances with a 3-1 record and a 3.53 ERA.
Cheyenne Mountain enters regionals 13-9 overall after it finished 7-3 in the 4A Pikes Peak League. The Hawks have lost their last two games, are 6-6 on the road and 1-1 on a neutral field.
Offense has been a struggle for the Hawks late in the season; April 18 was their last game with 10+ runs. However, Cheyenne Mountain does have some power. Junior Colton Johnson (No. 29) leads the team with a 0.472 batting average and seven home runs. Senior Noah Reickert (No. 13) has a 0.453 batting average and five runs.
Johnson is also the team’s top starter on the mound with a 5-1 record and a 2.92 ERA. Freshman Kyle Propes has a 4-1 record with a 4.86 ERA.
If the Demons get through regionals to state for the second consecutive season, there’s a good chance they could see some familiar opponents. After Palisade at No. 1 and Falcon at No. 4, Grand Junction is No. 5, despite two losses at Durango this season.