Durango beats Cimarron, gets third crack at Sierra Vista

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

Tuesday's Sunset Region first-round baseball game between Cimarron-Memorial and Durango was supposed to be a pitchers' duel.

But as the game wore on at The Yard at Durango, it becameclear it would be settled at the plate.

Durango got the best of the Spartans and starter Mark Willinsky as the Trailblazers advanced with a 9-4 victory.

"It was tight all the way through," Durango coach Sam Knapp said. "We were very fortunate. Anytime you can beat a quality pitcher like him and a quality program like theirs, you feel very fortunate."

Mike McClaren earned the win for Durango.

"We just went in there and tried to execute and do our thing," Knapp said. "The kids stepped up and executed."

As for their good fortune to have beaten Cimarron, Knapp may have to reconsider. Cimarron advances to play 12-16 Cheyenne in the one-loss bracket. Durango will face 28-5 Sierra Vista, which won two 6-5 games against the Trailblazers this year.

"They don't beat themselves. If you're going to beat them, you're going to have to come out and play fundamentally sound baseball," Knapp said. "They pitch, they play great defense. We can't go in there looking to score a ton of runs because it's not going to happen. We're going to have to execute and play small ball."

The Mountain Lions moved on after defeating Cheyenne 5-1. Sierra Vista pitcher Chad Riddle went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs, while allowing one run on seven hits in seven innings to guide the Mountain Lions to the victory.

Cheyenne catcher Robert Mills went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Once Around Town

Foothill scored two seventh-inning runs to pull ahead of Vegas. Kevin Kreier earned the win for the Falcons.

"It's always good to get that first win in the playoffs," Foothill coach Bill Bainbridge said. "It's good to have that confidence going in. We can play with a good ballclub like Green Valley."

All four Northeast playoff teams were defeated in first-round games.

Silverado pitcher Brenton Van gave up just one hit in a complete game shutout of Chaparral at Eldorado. Silverado coach Brian Whitaker credited the 4-0 win to good defense backing up Van.

"I'm proud of my team's defensive effort," Whitaker said. "Defensively we are peaking at the right time of the year."

Silverado advanced to play Basic at Eldorado. The Wolves' Casey Cochran had five hits and drove in two runs as Basic routed Eldorado 8-2.

They trailed 5-1 going into the fourth inning against Palo Verde at Centennial before slipping away with a 10-9 victory against the Panthers.

"It's the first playoff win for all those guys on the field," Bonanza coach Derek Stafford said. "They're still young. This is a big win for us. I'm surprised by the way we hit the ball."

Bonanza pitcher Milan Brown was able to wrap things up just before a cold win began blowing off the Spring Mountains.

"It started raining at the end of the game," Stafford said. "The weather was gross."

Bonanza advances to play site host Centennial at 6 p.m. today. Centennial advanced after defeating Bishop Gorman 2-1. Tyler Lavigne had five strikeouts and gave up no walks and one hit in the victory.

Jeff Butler contributed to this report.