The Dolores Bears couldn’t break the curse on Tuesday.
Still winless on the season, the Bears (0-12, 0-5 2A District 2) played one of their best games of the year on Tuesday against the Dove Creek Bulldogs (5-11, 2-4 1A District 1).
But it wasn’t enough to grab their first win.
Trailing 2-1 after four innings, Dolores senior Josh McCoy smacked a three-run RBI-triple in the top of the fifth to give the visiting Bears a 4-2 lead.
Eric Eastman drove in another run in the sixth inning, and the following frame, Brennan Hite capped off the Bears’ scoring with an RBI-single to head into the bottom of the seventh with a 6-2 advantage.
But just three outs away from Dolores’ first win of the year, the curse of untimely errors reared its ugly head.
There were mental errors, like when – instead of taking the out at first after a ground ball by Spencer Gatlin – Dolores attempted, and failed, to throw out Ryan Delano-Martinez at the plate with a four-run lead and one out.
And there were physical errors, like when singles hit by Kyle Schultz and Derek Kibel weren’t fielded cleanly and allowed Dove Creek baserunners to advance.
The Bulldogs capitalized on the blunders and put together a four-run seventh inning to send the game into extras tied at six.
Pitching in relief of starter Colin Hobbs, Dove Creek senior Kyle Schultz shut the door on the Bears in the top of the eighth by retiring three consecutive batters. And then, in the bottom half of the inning, Dove Creek senior Case Baughman doubled and advanced to third on a past ball to put the winning run on third with one out.
The Bears caught a breath of fresh air after the next batter, Delano-Martinez, hit a shot to third and Baughman was caught in a pickle and tagged out between third and home.
But Delano-Martinez advanced to second during the chaos and moved to third on another past ball.
Scott Gatlin followed with a walk, and then with runners on first third and two outs, Dove Creek senior Spencer Gatlin sent the home crowd away happy with a walk-off single hit to the left-field fence.
Errors have plagued the Bears all year, and on Tuesday, the seventh-inning breakdown was a microcosm of their frustrating season.
“We played 6 ½ great innings and half of a bad inning, and it cost us the game,” Dolores head coach Rusty Hamilton said following the 7-6 loss.
“It was pretty miserable,” he continued. “We had some errors and that’s what cost us the game. There were multiple players, nobody specific, but we went in with the lead and thought we had a win.”
Even trailing by four entering the final half of the seventh, the Bulldogs did not appear uptight or concerned. Head coach Curtis Garver later said that staying patient and making adjustments at the plate were keys in his team’s comeback win.
“We just try to stay calm because we know we can come back on anybody, and we’ve proven that,” he said. “We were just missing it a little bit and popping them up instead of hitting hard line drives. But they adjusted and we had a few good hits right at the end and Spencer had a good line drive to end the game.”
The two teams were scheduled to play a doubleheader, but after Dove Creek jumped out to a two-run lead in the second contest, the game was called in the second inning due to a mixture of sleet and snow.
It is undetermined whether the second game will be rescheduled, but both teams are back in action on Saturday for doubleheaders.
Dove Creek will host Nucla (7-10, 3-1 1A District 1) and Dolores will host Ignacio (10-4, 5-1 2A District 2).
