Arbor View’s baseball team had squandered multiple scoring opportunities in each of the first four innings Monday against Durango, leaving runners on base in each inning.
The Aggies, holding a slim 3-2 lead, didn’t miss on their scoring chances in the fifth inning.
Arbor View sent 10 runners to plate and scored five runs on six hits to break the game open.
That helped the Aggies, the Sky League’s No. 2 seed, to roll to a 10-2 home win over Durango, the Mountain League’s No. 4 seed, in a Class 5A Southern Region tournament elimination game.
“(Durango) did a really good job pitching with runners in scoring position,” Arbor View coach Tony Girod said. “I don’t know how many we left on base … We left runners on in all of those innings. We were able to put up a six-spot when we got to one of their best pitchers.”
Arbor View (29-7) advances to play Faith Lutheran at 4 p.m. Thursday at Durango in another elimination game.
“We battled some adversity and we’re just taking it one game at a time,” said senior shortstop Devin Martin, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, including a two-run double during the six-run fifth inning.
Things haven’t been easy for Arbor View this postseason as the Aggies had to forfeit a 7-2 opening-round win last Thursday against Desert Oasis and fell to the losers bracket. No reason was given for the forfeiture.
Arbor View quickly turned the page to shut out Liberty 11-0 in an elimination game on Saturday to advance in the losers bracket.
“It felt deep for the day of,” Martin, a CSN commit, said of learning about having to forfeit the game. “But we just had to lock in and know that nothing was going to change the situation for us.
“We just put our heads down. We’ve come so far this season as a team that there was no other way to go about this. We’re just fighting.”
Durango (13-18) turned double plays in the first and second innings behind starting pitcher Josiah Lavea-Aldridge, and reliever Aiden Farrell got out of bases loaded jams in the third and fourth innings.
Jon Turner’s RBI single in the top of the fifth helped Durango cut into Arbor View’s lead, 3-2.
Then the Aggies started rolling in the fifth. Hayden Eckert’s RBI single scored Jacob Belanger, who led off the inning with a triple, to start the rally. Five Aggies recorded RBIs and seven reached base in the inning.
“They’ve worked extremely hard and offensively, they’ve really taken a team approach,” Girod said. “There’s not a whole lot of individuals out here. Everybody’s out here picking each other up and doing a great job. … These boys are going to go a long way.”
Angelo Ugarte, a sophomore, was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, three runs scored and a walk for Arbor View, and Eckert, a sophomore had two hits, an RBI and two runs scored.
”Big ups to our underclassmen and our sophomores,” Martin said. “They’re coming up in big spots and they’re believing in themselves and that’s huge for us. Our chemistry is through the roof.”
DD Davis earned the win on the mound for the Aggies, pitching 4 2/3 innings, and allowing three hits and two runs. Turner was 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for Durango.
The Aggies defeated Faith Lutheran 6-2 in the regular season on April 8.
“We’re going to see their best. We’ve seen everybody else’s best and we’re just going to try to win it the hard way,” Girod said. “That’s the only way I can explain it. This wasn’t the easy way or most desired path.
“But I guess we can prove who we are. We’re up for the challenge.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
