{"id":23120,"date":"2025-03-16T16:13:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T22:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-baseball-gains-momentum-with-first-win-over-shiprock\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:27:22","slug":"dolores-baseball-gains-momentum-with-first-win-over-shiprock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-baseball-gains-momentum-with-first-win-over-shiprock\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores baseball gains momentum with first win over Shiprock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores head coach talks strategy with his team during a timeout during the game on Wednesday evening at the Chieftain field.Kaitlyn Lowley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Dolores Bears baseball team, the first varsity squad in years, is starting to find its rhythm after securing their first win of the season with a 12-3 victory over Shiprock on Wednesday at the Chieftains\u2019 home field.<\/p>\n

The game was limited to seven innings because they played a varsity and junior varsity doubleheader.<\/p>\n

The Bears (1-3) faced tough competition early on, suffering losses to a strong Pagosa Springs team in a doubleheader. They lost the first game 17-1 and the second 24-9. On Monday, they hosted Monticello but fell short, losing 8-1.<\/p>\n

Freshman pitcher Branson Lee led the Bears in their game against Shiprock, recording 11 strikeouts while allowing just three hits and runs over six innings. Sophomore Levi Hampton closed out the game in the final inning, adding two strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Offensively, sophomore Waylon Kiddoo led with two runs, two hits, and one RBI, while freshman Hayden Lancaster followed with two runs and one hit.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores sophomore Waylon Kiddoo (29) prepares to swing Wednesday evening at the Chieftain's field. Kiddoo led the team offensively with two runs and hits.Kaitlyn Lowley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Branson Lee (10) throws a fast pitch against Shiprock's offense on Wednesday evening. Lee recorded 11 strikeouts, and only allowed three runs and hits across the six out of seven innings he pitched. Kaitlyn Lowley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shiprock
Shiprock senior Khalil Nakai (1) throws a fast pitch to Dolores in their game on Wednesday evening at the Chieftain's field. Nakai recorded four strikeouts during the four innings he pitched. Kaitlyn Lowley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores sophomore Levi Hampton (7) swings moments before earning his only hit for the game on Wednesday evening. Hampton recorded two strikeouts during the last inning he pitched.Kaitlyn Lowley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On the mound for Shiprock, sophomore Zach Billy recorded two strikeouts, allowing two hits and three runs in the first three innings. Senior Khalil Nakai pitched the final four innings, striking out four batters but giving up six hits and nine runs.<\/p>\n

The Bears got off to a strong start, taking a 2-0 lead by the end of the first inning. However, they struggled to score in the second, with both teams missing out on scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n

In the bottom of the third, Lee dominated, striking out Shiprock\u2019s Tyson Clark and Sean Chee early, showcasing the challenge the Chieftains faced against his fast arm. However, the Chieftains responded in the top of the fourth, with Billy quickly retiring Lee, Michael Nielson, and Orin Samulski in the Bears\u2019 first three batting attempts.<\/p>\n

Lee resumed his dominant performance in the bottom of the fourth, striking out two more batters. However, Billy slipped through for a run, putting Shiprock on the board for the first time, making the score 3-1. Both teams were quiet in the fifth inning, struggling to get a hit big enough to score a run.<\/p>\n

The Bears took control in the top of the sixth inning when Lee hit a deep ball, allowing teammate Wyatt Kiddoo to score and sending Lee to second base. Corben Tallmadge followed with a deep hit of his own, bringing Lee home. The Bears continued their strong hitting and base running, adding six more runs.<\/p>\n

Lee continued to dominate Shiprock\u2019s offense in the bottom of the sixth. He stumbled briefly by throwing four balls, which resulted in a walk, but he quickly regained control, earning two strikeouts in a row and helping the Bears retire another batter to close out the inning.<\/p>\n

The Bears continued their success from the previous inning in the top of the seventh. Samulski\u2019s hit brought Lee home for a run and sent Tallmadge to second base. Then, Waylon Kiddoo\u2019s hit allowed Tallmadge to score his second run of the game. Lancaster followed with a hit that brought Wyatt Kiddoo in for the final run of the night for Dolores. The inning ended when Gus Vaughn struck out, marking the team\u2019s third strike and switching sides.<\/p>\n

Hampton took over pitching in the bottom of the seventh, impressively striking out the first two batters for the Chieftains. Shiprock managed to get a hit, but it was caught by the Dolores fielders to end the game, 12-3.<\/p>\n

Coach Garver said the team\u2019s strong pitching helped in their victory over Shiprock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got off to a great start with Branson. He pitched really well,\u201d Garver said. \u201cHe threw about 85 pitches before Levi came in to close it out. Having strong pitching from the start and maintaining that through the game really helped us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Bears only fielded a JV squad, marking step one of Garver\u2019s plan to revive Dolores\u2019 baseball program after he took on the role of athletic director and head baseball coach in 2023. This season, the Bears reached step two by fielding a varsity squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was about getting some playing time and trying to teach them as much as we could about baseball and now, we\u2019re doing the same thing, just at a higher level,\u201d Garver said. \u201cMoving forward, we\u2019re going to get into our league play after spring break, and we play Ignacio, so we\u2019ll know exactly right where we are in our league.<\/p>\n

Dolores will travel to Ignacio on March 25, then take a short break from league play before competing in the Aztec Invitational, starting March 27. After that, they will face Ignacio again at home on April 5, travel to Nucla on April 15, and host Monticello at home on April 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bears’ Branson Lee dominates on the mound, stifling Chieftains’ offense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[470,1206,28,29,797],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-baseball","tag-dolores-county-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-shiprock-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23120","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=23120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77986,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23120\/revisions\/77986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23120"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}