{"id":114178,"date":"2015-03-04T20:33:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T03:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-return-to-diamond\/"},"modified":"2015-03-04T20:33:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T03:33:45","slug":"bears-return-to-diamond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-return-to-diamond\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears return to diamond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Snow
Snow covered fields has forced the Dolores baseball team to practice in the gym.<\/span>Sam Green\/Dolores Star<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After advancing to Regionals last season, the Dolores High School baseball program is set to kick off what it hopes will be a successful year.<\/p>\n

Missing from the lineup will be heavy-hitting first-baseman Evan Moore, speedy center fielder Deano Valdez and do-it-all third baseman Ethen Upton, who have graduated.<\/p>\n

Despite those missing pieces, the Bears figure to remain competive thanks to a pitching staff anchored by seniors Kellen Gatzke and Stetson Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cKellen has a big arm, and Stetson brings leadership to the team,\u201d said Dolores manager Rusty Hamilton. \u201cI look to rely on him and Kellen to lead the team and keep us focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a real big depth chart for pitchers last year,\u201d added Gatzke. \u201cThat\u2019s something that we have a little bit of this year and that\u2019s definitely going to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also figuring to play key roles for the Bears this season will be speedy center fielder Guy Wallace, freshman catcher Tel Hamilton, second-baseman Josh McCoy and new first baseman Kitty Wallace.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur strength is in numbers,\u201d said Dolores manager Rusty Hamilton. \u201cI have 33 kids out for baseball, and I have a lot of returners. The biggest thing this year is going to be finding that synergy on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the questions surrounding Dolores less than a week before the start of its season is whether the offense can keep things competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some big bats back, but I foresee our offense being our biggest weakness until we can get on the field and put a lineup together,\u201d said Rusty Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely going to have to work on our batting,\u201d said Stetson Hamilton.<\/p>\n

The Bears schedule figures to be difficult, with Class 1A power Dove Creek, San Juan Basin League rival Nucla and Class 2A foe Ignacio.<\/p>\n

The Bears open their season with a doubleheader in Moab on March 10 before traveling to Shiprock for a matchup against the Chieftains on March 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, my goal is to get back to Regionals,\u201d said Rusty Hamilton. \u201cWe lost a couple of guys, but we have some new guys coming in this year and I think we can be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores baseball sets sights on Regionals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114178"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}