Despite its season coming to an end last weekend, the Pagosa Springs High School Pirate baseball team won its first playoff game in 20 years and achieved the goals set at the beginning of the year.
The Pirates finished the regular season 13-10 and were given the No. 19 seed in the 3A state playoffs. They traveled to Cortez Saturday, May 16, for the Cortez regional.
Their first matchup of the regional came against the No. 14 seed Brush Beetdiggers. The Pirates upset the Beetdiggers, winning 5-4 in eight innings.
“It was possibly our best game of the season,” said coach Jon Wells. “We let up a couple runs early in the game in the first two innings, I think three of them [were] unearned by errors and stuff like that, but our team really locked in.”
After two innings, the Pirates found themselves down 4-0, but held the Beetdiggers scoreless over the next six innings and slowly clawed their way back for the win.
The Pirates scored a run in the third, two in the fourth and a run in the sixth to tie the game up.
After a scoreless seventh by both teams, the Pirates pushed a run across in the top of the eighth and shut the Beetdiggers down once again for the 5-4 win.
Taylor Wells threw a complete game, giving up four runs (one earned) on 10 hits in eight innings. He also struck out five and walked only one batter.
Hudson Davis and Noah Bellina each had three hits. Davis went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Bellina went 3-for-4 with two runs.
Sebastian Gonzalez had a hit and an RBI, Zach Pouyer had a hit and a run, and Jonathan Moncada had a hit and two runs. Taylor Wells didn’t finish with a hit, but had an RBI.
“We had some timely hits,” said Jon Wells. “We hit pretty well that game, but we had some situations where we had base runners on with two outs and our hitters were able to find holes and get base hits and score those runs.”
Jon Wells also emphasized that the Pirates ran the bases really well in the game. The game-tying run came when the runner on third stole home while a runner on first caused the pitcher to step off. The game-winning run in the eighth came on a sacrifice fly.
The win set up a rematch with the No. 3 seed, Montezuma-Cortez.
The Panthers had already beat the Pirates 11-1 and 15-1 during the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the postseason matchup was not much different. The Pirates lost 13-0 in a game that lasted only five innings.
“We put so much energy and effort and everything else into that first game, I think our boys were just kind of zonked after that,” said Jon Wells. “Our pitching, we had some walks and some base hits early in the game that put us behind, and we just couldn’t catch up.”
The Panthers scored three in the first, five in the second, four in the third and one more in the fourth. The Pirates finished with just two hits and committed three errors.
Braylon Landry and Gonzalez each had a hit.
Kaeden Iguchi started on the mound and gave up eight runs (three earned) on three hits in one and two-thirds innings. He also walked five.
Landry came in and threw the final two and one-thirds innings in relief. He gave up five runs (zero earned) on four hits while walking one and striking out one.
Despite the season coming to an end at the hands of the Panthers, the team overachieved in what was thought to be a rebuilding year, emphasized Wells.
“[I’m] really proud of the boys [and] the hard work and attitude and everything that they put into this season. The brotherhood that they created really showed through just in the overall success of the program this year,” said Jon Wells.
He also mentioned how important this year’s senior class was to the success of the team.
Pouyer, Iguchi and Dylan Dempster all played their final game in a Pirates uniform on Saturday.
They all exemplified what it means to be a Pirate with their hard work and attitudes, noted Jon Wells. He also mentioned that they all bought into the team atmosphere.
Even though the three seniors will be missed, Jon Wells stated he is excited for next year as the core of the team is returning for another year and there is some impressive freshmen talent that will be added.
The team, along with Jon Wells, has high goals for next year after the success of this year, the coach indicated, and they know that if they want to achieve their goals, the work starts now.
“After that Cortez loss as we were kind of breaking down the game and looking over and seeing Cortez taking pictures with the regional championship plaque, I told them that’s where I want to be next year,” said Jon Wells. “This year was a huge step for the program [and] a season that the boys should be so proud of, but that’s our goal next year.”
jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com
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