Durango closes in on state title

Bob Cloud

Friday, Aug. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

HENDERSON -- As a result of some clutch hitting and a powerful pitching performance, Durango-Tufflite stands one win away from the American Legion state baseball title.

Justin Jones gave up seven hits and struck out four batters in eight innings of work as Durango eliminated Green Valley 3-2 Thursday night to advance to tonight's championship round of the1996 state tournament at Burkholder Field.

Durango will face the Las Vegas Knights (Bishop Gorman) -- a 10-3 winner over Western in the elimination bracket -- at 5:05 p.m. A second game, if necessary, would follow.

Durango, as the tournament's only unbeaten team, needs to beat the Gorman squad just once to claim the state crown and advance to next week's Western Regionals. The Knights, on the other hand, must beat Durango twice to earn the berth. Green Valley, as the host team, has an automatic bid to the regionals.

Jones, who improved to 8-0 for the summer, and Green Valley starter Michael Nannini dueled throughout Thursday night's contest. Nannini was strong in his own right, striking out eight over nine innings.

"That was a well-played game at this level by both teams," Durango coach Tom Appleyard said afterward. "Green Valley is just a super team, but Justin pitched really well for us. He didn't get the chance to pitch that much for the high school, but he's stepped up for us this summer. He's going to be a good one."

Durango opened the scoring with a run in the fourth, when Nick Aiello doubled off the wall with two outs and scored on a double by Jason McCrea which barely eluded a diving attempt by Green Valley right fielder Scott Yahraus. Tufflite added another tally in the fifth, as a bloop single by Kenny Sarna -- again with two away -- plated David Yancy for a 2-0 lead.

A single by Justin Kittrell, a sacrifice and an RBI base hit from Alan Webb made it 3-0 for Durango in the seventh, but Green Valley answered with a run in the bottom of the frame on a run-scoring single by Matt Stratton. A two-out single by Yahraus and an RBI double by Wes Mosman in the eighth brought Green Valley to within 3-2, but Chris Milligan relieved Jones in the ninth and kept the Gators at bay.

"It was definitely one of those games where I took good stuff to the mound," Jones said. "I had fun out there. I was able to get the curve over early in the count and set up the fastball, and in that way I guess I'm different from most guys.

"Tonight was certainly a pitcher's game. He (Nannini) deserved to win as well, but I think the difference was he walked five and I only walked two. That's big in a close game."

Green Valley coach Sam Thomas said even in defeat his team has plenty of positives to carry over to regional play, particularly the pitching performance of Nannini.

"He was fabulous," said Thomas. "He's been our guy the whole summer. I was very pleased with him. You know, every time we step on the field we want to compete and win, but we saw some things in this tournament which we can take into the regionals. I thought we battled back tonight, and that's a positive note going into next week."

Despite the fact his team now stands one win from regional play and faces a team it beat 17-6 on Wedneday, Appleyard said he's still not quite ready to order up the champagne.

"Gorman has given us fits all year, and they're playing good ball in this tournament," he said. "They played an excellent game against Western today, so we know what still lies ahead for us."

Nino Mantico drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double in the seventh and Dane Ball collected four hits to power Gorman past Western in the early game. Paul Wurts pitched six innings to pick up the victory.