The winless Dolores Bears (0-8) found themselves in another hole on Saturday against the Dove Creek Bulldogs (4-7).
Playing at the neutral McAndrews Field in Cortez due to field conditions in Dolores, the visitors on the scoreboard – Dove Creek – led 5-0 after four innings.
And then the Bulldogs tacked on six additional runs in the top of the fifth to jump ahead 11-0.
Had Dolores gone quietly in the bottom half of the fifth, the game would have been over due to run-rule.
But the Bears rallied.
After loading the bases, Tel Hamilton grounded out to first, but he drove in Eric Eastman who reached on an error to begin the inning.
Then, senior Josh McCoy singled to score Zach Hartle to trim the Bulldogs’ lead to nine and extend the game.
Both teams were scoreless in the sixth, and then Dove Creek outscored Dolores 3-1 in the seventh to take the game, 14-3.
The Bulldogs slapped 14 hits in the contest, and the offensive storm was led by sophomore Derek Kibel.
Kibel finished 3-for-5 at the dish with two doubles, three runs scored and four RBIs.
Spencer Gatlin, Ryan Delano-Martinez and Jordan Ernst also doubled for the Bulldogs, and Gatlin and Ernst each drove in two runs.
Then on the bump for Dove Creek, senior Kyle Schultz was focused and steady.
While he had just two strikeouts on the day, he went the full seven innings and held the Bears to two earned runs by throwing strikes and trusting his defense to make plays.
“He didn’t even have a very high pitch count,” said Dove Creek head coach Curtis Garver. “He did really good and threw a lot of strikes. I think he only had one or two walks, and that’s what we need, especially when he has a strong defense behind him.”
McCoy went five innings on the mound for Dolores, and he helped himself by driving in two of the Bears’ three runs.
Justin Purkat closed out the final two innings for Dolores, striking out two and allowing two runs.
Following the loss, Dolores head coach Rusty Hamilton spoke about his team’s fight in the fifth inning to score and prolong the game, rather than laying down and accepting a 10-run-rule loss after five.
“That’s what we want,” he said. “We want the kids to keep working no matter what the score is, even though the score doesn’t reflect how we played.”
“I think we played, all-in-all, a pretty good game,” he continued. “And a lot of things came around for us there towards the end of the game.”
Still winless at the midway point of the season, it would be easy to lose hope.
And that’s what Hamilton and his staff are trying to instill in the Bears, by way of positive attitude.
“I’ve been preaching all week that we can’t let our attitudes get in the way,” he explained. “I think we’re showing up to the field beat. So I’m trying to coach them out of showing up that way and to come out ready to play ball and play ball the whole game.”