Friday, April 3, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.
The second-ranked Durango baseball team had a lot of history on its side when it took the field against Cimarron-Memorial Thursday night: a 13-game overall winning streak, a 38-game home unbeaten string and a run of five straight games against the Spartans without a loss.
As it turned out, Cimarron had something a little more significant on its side: pitcher Mike Esposito.
The junior right-hander had perhaps the best outing of his high school career, allowing only two baserunners, surrendering just one hit and striking out 12 batters to propel the visitors to a 3-0 conference victory.
"I felt really good out there," said Esposito, who faced one over the minimum in his complete game win. "During warmups we were pretty loose, and when the game started we just went after it like mad dogs."
The sixth-ranked Spartans (9-3, 2-1 Sunset) provided their ace with all the support he would need in the first three innings, chasing Trailblazer starter J.T. Sherman with an early seven-hit, three-run attack.
After getting an unearned run in the first, Cimarron widened the gap behind three-straight singles by Mike Luczynski, Esposito and Ryan Sudengo.
Sudengo's hit, a blooper that dropped in right-center, brought home Luczynski to make it 2-0, and Colby Hyt's ensuing sacrifice fly sent Esposito to the plate for the game's final run.
From there, Esposito took matters into his own hands, keeping Durango (13-2, 3-1) off balance with his hard split-fingered fastball, sharp curveball and circle-change.
"He had very good stuff," Trailblazers coach Mike Gomez said. "The only thing you can do against a guy like that is to try to cut down on strikeouts and try to catch a few breaks."
Durango was unable to do either, fanning seven times over the final four innings. And on the two occasions when the hosts managed to get on base, they had little success advancing their runners.
The Trailblazers' best scoring chance came in the bottom of the fifth, when Jack Newark knocked his team's only hit through the right side of the Spartan infield. Chris Bannister followed with a hard liner, but Sudengo made a diving catch and doubled up Newark to keep Durango scoreless.
"Anytime you can beat someone like Durango, it's a confidence builder," Cimarron coach Calvin Valvo said. "We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole by losing our first (conference) game to Gorman, and we would have been 1-2 with a tough game against Bonanza coming up if we'd lost tonight."
Right-hander Scott Yahraus provided the game's only highlights for the hosts, retiring 12 of the 13 batters he faced after relieving Sherman in the third.
"We haven't gotten to the point where we're playing our best baseball, so to be 13-2 right now, I'm not disappointed," Gomez said. "It's a loss we can build on. We can use this positively going into the spring break."
Durango will spend its week "off" hosting a pair of invitational tournaments, both of which will feature top competition from throughout the Southwest.
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