Some call them dribblers.
Some call them bloopers.
Some call them bleeders.
Some call them Texas Leaguers.
They go by a lot of names, but whatever their variety - on the ground or in the air - they
came in spades the first couple of innings for the Montrose Indians.
"A bunch of duck farts," Demons starting pitcher Aaron Coats said after their 7-4
victory.
Some call them duck farts.
Grayden Berry led off the game with a dribbler through the right side of the infield for a
single.
Justin Womack followed with a blooper just past the infield into shallow center field for a
single.
With one out, Joe Montes hit a bleeder between short and third to score Berry and give the
Indians a 1-0 lead after one half-inning.
Montrose made a few more duck calls the next inning.
Joe Maloney led off the top of the second inning with another dribbler through the right side
of the infield for a base hit.
With one out, Mitch West dropped a Texas Leaguer over the first baseman's head into shallow
right field for a base hit.
Berry singled - sharply - to load the bases, then Robertson hit a bleeder into shallow left
field to score two runs and give the Indians a 3-0 lead after 1`BD innings.
"I felt really good," said Coats, who admitted frustration at Montrose's feeble collection of
hits but didn't seem all too concerned.
"I knew we'd come around. We always do."
Clayton Parks and Coats led off their half of the second inning with a single and a walk.
Graham Brookie sacrificed the runners to second and third.
John Ugai, with two outs, hit a humpback liner to short. The ball short-hopped then skipped
by the shortstop into left field, which allowed both runners to score.
Durango added another unearned run in the bottom of the fourth. Brookie reached base on an
error by the shortstop, and the bases became loaded with a single by Colton Bourne and a walk by Ugai.
Alex Fryback, the Demons' No. 9 hitter, hit a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game
at 3.
"We got the big hits when we needed them," Demons coach Rob Coddington said.
"The big hits were by Chas (Tabone). I think in his first two at-bats he was pressing a bit,
trying to do too much. But he drove the ball his last two at-bats. Those balls were smoked."
Tabone, who grounded out to second in the first and flew out to center in the third, lined a
one-out triple to the left-center field wall in the bottom of the fifth inning.
As the Demons' catcher slid into the third-base bag, the relay throw skipped past the
Indians' third baseman and pitcher, who was backing up the play, and went to the backstop.
Tabone jumped up and sprint the extra 90 feet to score the Demons' fourth unearned run of the
contest. The next three, however, were earned.
With two outs in the sixth, Durango strung together four consecutive hits, including Tabone's
two-RBI stand-up triple to the right-center field wall, his sixth triple in five games and third consecutive game
that he's made the 270-foot trek.
"I just had to slow it down a little bit," Tabone said from the dugout after the game. "I was
swinging way too hard my first couple of at-bats."
Robertson, the Indians' third pitcher of the game, struck out the first two batters he faced
in the sixth.
Will Benoit then singled to left, and Tyler McKnight singled to center. On a 2-0 fastball,
Tabone whistled a line drive to the right-center field gap to score the game-winning runs.
Parks chased Tabone home with a base hit to right.
Coats, who surrendered an unearned run in the seventh, struck out 10 in a complete-game
victory.
"He pitched really well (Friday)," Coddington said. "He had his curveball working, and his
fastball still had some zip on it at the end of the game.
"(Today) is a big day, though. Grand Junction Central is playing a lot better, and they're
coached well."
Durango, 13-5 overall and 5-3 in the Southwestern League, trails Grand Junction and Fruita
Monument in third place with two regular-season games to play.
Grand Junction, which beat Fruita (8-3) on Friday, clinched the SWL at 8-1, 18-2
overall. Grand Junction Central (4-4), which lost 11-4 at Montezuma-Cortez on Friday,
plays Durango at 10 a.m. today at Ward Lee Field on the La Plata County Fairgrounds.
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