Rain and lightning forced two games from the 3A Region 3 championships to be moved from Bayfield to Ignacio High School’s artificial turf field, but the change in venue didn’t faze the Wolverines.
After winning a tight 3-2 game over the No. 30 Bennett Tigers on Friday at BHS in the first round, No. 3 Bayfield took on No. 14 Lamar in the championship on Saturday. Lamar beat No. 19 Strasburg 15-1 in five innings to reach the finale, with that game starting on Friday in Bayfield and finishing Saturday morning at IHS.
With a spot in the state tournament on the line, Bayfield’s bats showed up in force to score an 11-1 win over the Lamar Thunder.
Nic Twedt led off the game for BHS. The Wolverines then batted around their order three times in the first three innings so Twedt also led off the second, third and fourth innings. All nine of Bayfield’s starters had at least one hit in the game, helping the Wolverines jump out to a 3-0 lead after one inning, 6-0 after two and 11-0 after three. Lamar scored its lone run in the fifth inning, but couldn’t score another to keep the 10-run rule from being enacted.
Micah Cornelia had a big game at the plate for BHS. Cornelia went 1-1 with a 2-RBI double, but also hit a sacrifice fly and got beaned with the bases loaded to drive in a run every time he stepped up to bat and finish with four RBIs.
Caden Wood hit an RBI double and scored a run.
Twedt went 1-2 with a triple, two walks and two runs.
Dante Candelaria went 1-1 with two walks and two RBIs, including the team’s final run. After Cornelia doubled, Candelaria doubled to put BHS up 11-0.
Tavian Box scored one run and went 2-2 at the plate.
Jackson Queen went 1-2 with two walks, two runs and one RBI. Andy Monger went 1-2 and Noah Chamblee finished 1-4 with one run.
Lance Mazur scored three runs and drove in one with a 2-3 outing. Mazur also pitched a complete game for BHS. He only gave up five hits and two walks in five innings while striking out nine.
The Ignacio High School baseball team also played on Saturday at the 2A Region 1 championships in Limon. Ignacio, the No. 16 seed, started the tournament against No. 17 Wray, but ended up losing 14-9.
No. 1 Limon, meanwhile, beat No. 32 Sedgwick County to earn a spot in the regional final against Wray.
See Wednesday’s edition of The Durango Herald for more regional baseball coverage.
– Joel Priest contributed to this report
