(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
PUEBLO — It wasn’t pretty, but it will do.
An error-filled game watered down a highly anticipated matchup between the No. 3 and No. 5 teams in the Class 4A CHSAANow.com baseball rankings. More than that, it was a battle for control of the South Central League.
So even if the Pueblo West Cyclones’ 13-7 win over Pueblo Centennial wasn’t pretty, it still counts the same in the standings.
“There’s a lot of us that hadn’t been on the field in a week so we thought defensively it was going to be sloppy,” Cyclones coach Dan Sanchez said. “I’m still disappointed in the way we played defense. We’re better than that.”
From the get-go, it appeared that it would be the Cyclones’ (10-3 overall, 4-0 South Central) night. They started the game with a four-run first inning, that all got started with a fielding error by Bulldogs shortstop Trevor Valencia.
That ignited a scoring run that was highlighted with a 2-RBI single from Josh Drury. Things only looked better as junior pitcher R.J. Dabovich took the hill for the first varsity start of his career.
But with the way his numbers looked through the first two innings, no one would’ve guess it. He struck out five Pueblo Centennial (10-2, 3-1) hitters and gave up no hits.
“He’s a kid that has a ton of potential,” Sanchez said. “He has a lot in the tank, but he’s been injured. We’re starting off slow, he’s on a pitch count.”
It looked like he was going to be able to give the Cyclones some quality innings, but he got into trouble in the third. A fielding error from Lucas Quimby and a throwing error from Dabovich cut the West lead to 4-3.
And that’s when things started getting messy.
The Cyclones got those three runs back in the top of the fourth, two of which came on a 2-RBI triple from Dawson Tate. The hitting overall was huge for Pueblo West and it was Drury who led the squad, going 3-5 with four RBIs.
“This is one we wanted,” Drury said. “It was big not only for me, but for our whole team to get the bats going.”
In the bottom of the fourth, the Bulldogs again got those three runs back thanks in part to some fielding mishaps. Between the two teams, they combined for 10 errors on the game.
Pueblo West answered by scoring five runs in the top of the fifth, pulling away from Centennial for good.
“I was confident just by the way we were swinging the bat,” Sanchez said. “When we swing the bat and we hit the ball to right-center like we did tonight, that’s what we look for. I was real pleased with that. I knew we would find a way to score runs.”
The sloppiness of the game can easily be attributed to the lack of playing time in the last week because of poor weather conditions. Centennial coach Jeff Kurtz knew that to beat a talented Cyclones team, his players had to play nearly flawless baseball.
“We started off the game with an error,” Bulldogs coach Jeff Kurtz said. “That was kind of a negative. We couldn’t keep trading runs with them.”
With control of the league no in-hand, the Cyclones will look to keep a firm grasp on the top spot as they face Pueblo East at the Runyon Field complex on Thursday. The game will be played on Tony Andenucio Field.
The Bulldogs will face Pueblo County on the same field as three total games will be played at the contest. They’ll get one more shot at Pueblo West on May 7.