Players unhappy with final outcome

     By Todd Dewey
     View staff writer
      The players from Durango High School feel Silverado's pain -- maybe even more so than the Skyhawks, who were awarded the Class 4A state baseball championship after a bench-clearing incident eliminated the two remaining teams -- Durango and Reno -- from contention.
      The defending state champion Trailblazers were three outs away from advancing to the state title game against Silverado when a collision at home plate resulted in an incident that led both benches to empty. Soon after, NIAA director Jerry Hughes declared the losers bracket final a double-forfeit.
      The ruling left both Durango and Silverado feeling dissatisfied.
      The Skyhawks, who had defeated Durango 2-0 earlier in the day to push the Trailblazers into the losers bracket, were denied the chance to celebrate their school's first state championship on the field -- providing they would have defeated the Trailblazers again.
      Durango, which would've had to take two games from Silverado to win their second straight title, were denied the opportunity to make another run for glory.
      "It's a terrible feeling for our kids and Silverado's kids must have a very hollow feeling," Durango coach Mike Gomez said. "Those kids wanted a chance to win it on the field."
      Silverado coach Brian Whitaker concurred.
      "I don't think it takes anything away from the fact we're the Nevada state champions," he said. "But there will always be that missing ingredient, the fact the kids didn't get to celebrate on the field. Our kids were the only ones that were cheated. They're the ones that lost out."
      Chris Kelly, who was involved in the play that led to the fracas, sympathized with the Skyhawks.
      "I feel bad for Silverado, mostly," Kelly said. "Because they all played together for so many years and never dogpiled and never partied. They never got to experience it on the field.
      "That's the greatest feeling in the world, and I'm sad Silverado never got to feel it -- or us feel it again."
      Durango hurler E.J. Shanks echoed the sentiment.
      "I would rather have lost to them on the field than to have what happened. That's got to be the saddest way to end the season," Shanks said. "I think that was the longest bus ride (home) I've ever had in my life."
      Durango, which eliminated Reno from last year's state tournament and beat the Huskies 10-7 in the first round this season, was leading Reno 8-2 in the top of the seventh inning when the incident occurred.
      Kelly was tagged out at home plate by Reno's Adam Colton. Kelly slid head-first into home, but, in an attempt to elude the tag, his feet flew in the air. Colton, who apparently felt Kelly tried to spike him, pushed Kelly's feet down and the players then exchanged words and shoves.
      Reno's Marc Kaiser, whom Kelly cracked two homers off of the previous day, then confronted Kelly and both benches cleared.
      No punches were thrown, but since players from both teams left their respective dugouts, Hughes declared the game a double-forfeit.
      "Silverado's the champion, we have no runner-up," Hughes said. "It's too bad it had to happen this way, but the bottom line is they knew that's the way it's handled."
      Kelly, who said he didn't try to spike Colton, was stunned when the game was ruled a double-forfeit.
      "I was in shock," he said. "There really wasn't a brawl; no punches were thrown. I thought they should have looked at it more deeply.
      "I felt they should've given us the ballgame. I think (Reno) was pretty much down and out and they were looking for something to drag us down with them."
      Gomez said he didn't think Reno intentionally tried to eliminate his team, but was disappointed nonetheless.
      "It's totally devastating," he said. "The kids put a lot of time and effort into it all year to put themselves in a position to play for (a state title) and to be three outs away from that opportunity makes it that much harder."
      Gomez, who doesn't dispute the ruling, said both teams succumbed to their emotions when the incident began.
      "All it took was a short lapse (of judgment)," he said. "For a short moment, both our team and Reno's team didn't really think about the letter of the law but about a teammate confronted. It was a matter of the kids overreacting, and their initial reaction was to go out and protect a teammate. But as quickly as they went out (of the dugout), they came back in."
      Gomez wanted to make clear the incident was anything but a bench-clearing brawl.
      "There were two initial shoves and that's about it. It was first portrayed as an all-out brawl, and that wasn't the case," he said. "Both teams came running out to defend their teammates, but nothing happened after that."
      Durango, which fought its way through the losers' bracket to win the state title last year and won three straight games to capture the Sunset Region crown this year, liked its chances to beat Silverado twice and defend its state title.
      "I felt like we were in that mode again and had that same feeling," Kelly said. "The whole team plays better when our backs are against the wall.
      "It's just like a big question mark who would've won it."
      Shanks was also confident.
      "Going into Saturday, I thought we had the deeper pitching staff," he said. "Gorman was in the driver's seat (in the Sunset Regional), and we beat them twice, so anything could happen."
      Gomez agreed.
      "I felt we had the arms to come after them and felt good about the way we were swinging the bats," he said. "I felt confident in our chances -- as confident as I'm sure Silverado (felt). But we would've liked to at least found out on the field."
      The Skyhawks (26-6) were equally confident, according to Whitaker.
      "We would've loved to have played Saturday morning," he said. "We were well-prepared and had a lot of momentum going. I think it was inevitable."
      Although the Trailblazers (29-10) won it all last year, that provided little solace.
      "That was last year," Kelly said.