POCATELLO — Easton Durham without competition is like a man without oxygen.

“Intense” only starts to describe the Highland multisport star, who plays quarterback for the Rams in the fall, point guard in the winter and shortstop in the spring — then does the same for the Pocatello Runnin’ Rebels Legion team in the summer.

There’s hardly a day in the year that Durham isn’t on a field or court somewhere, trying his absolute hardest to beat the person across from him.

“He’s probably the biggest gamer in the state,” Highland coach Christian Colonel said. “He’s so competitive.”

So when Durham went down early in Highland’s baseball season with a hand injury that put him on the shelf for over a month, the senior tried to find a replacement for that rush, for the intensity of competition.

He ran in some track meets. He played countless hours of MLB The Show.

But Durham couldn’t replace that intensity until Friday, when he returned to the lineup as Highland beat Madison, 4-2 and 10-6, in the 5A District 5-6 tournament at Halliwell Field.

The wins clinched a state-tournament spot for the Rams, who’ll play Idaho Falls in a three-game series starting on Wednesday to determine the district championship.

“Running track, it’s just not the same,” Durham said after the game, greasy eye black triangles starting to fade from the sweat. “Being able to go to state with this whole team, I’ve missed it bad. Being out there, it was fricking awesome. I won’t take it for granted ever again, especially because it’s my last year.”

If the injury took something vital away from Durham, it cost Highland something almost as important.

Colonel favors small-ball. When the Rams got the leadoff runner on base Friday, the bunt sign was almost automatic. Every Highland player has a cheat sheet on their wrist, matched by the one in Colonel’s back pocket that he uses to direct Highland’s running game — bunts, steals, hit-and-runs, anything to speed up the clock for opposing fielders and make them make mistakes.

“It puts a lot of pressure on the defense,” Colonel said. “We bunt all the time in practice, we work on the small game all the time, and I told them, it’s going to pay off.”

Durham, one of the fastest athletes in the area, is the perfect fit for that philosophy. Batting in the No. 2 spot in Highland’s lineup, he can key the Rams’ offense without ever hitting a ball out of the infield — and despite the oven-mitt-looking protective covering on his hand, that’s exactly what he did on Friday.

After striking out in his first at-bat, he beat out a routine grounder in the third when Madison’s second baseman fumbled the ball for just a second. That gave Highland runners on first and second with no outs, although the Rams wouldn’t score.

After a two-run single by Scott Baker in the fifth gave Highland a 4-2 lead, Durham reached on another error in the sixth, moved to second on a groundout and stole third, although he was stranded again.

That was a constant theme in Game 1 for the Rams, who had runners on base in every inning except the second but struggled to bring them home.

Luckily, Colonel had given the ball to his ace Jaxon Christensen to start the series. Watching Christensen pitch almost makes the result feel like an inevitability — his fastball is that fast, his breaking stuff that sharp, that it’s difficult to imagine the other team scratching out any runs at all, let alone winning.

Earlier in the week, Christensen had thrown a bullpen and thought his stuff was just a little bit off. He couldn’t diagnose the problem — all he knew was that his velocity was a tick or two down, his control was wandering and his curveball was flat.

Immediately after practice ended, Christensen called his dad, Jared, and asked him to bring a throwing net over to Highland so he could try to work through the issue. The extra work was clear on Friday, as Christensen threw a complete game in the opener, striking out seven.

After giving up single runs in the first and third, he closed the game with four shutout innings, allowing the Rams’ offense to come alive just enough to squeak out the win.

“I called my dad right after that practice, like, ‘Let’s go work, I’ve got to make sure I’m 100% for this game,’” Christensen said. “And I went out there and was like, I’m not losing. I’ve got prom tomorrow, I’m not losing. ... My 2-seam was tailing really good, my curveball was doing exactly what I wanted it to do, late break.”

After Christensen’s quality start, the story of the second game was back to Durham and Highland’s opportunistic offense.

He beat out a slow roller between third base and the pitcher’s mound in the first and scored on a wild pitch with two outs.

After Madison scored three runs in the top of the third, helped by a throwing error by Durham, Highland scored five runs in the bottom of the inning, moving baserunners up several times on passed balls and forcing three Madison errors in the frame.

Throwing error aside, Highland also felt the impact of Durham’s return on defense, as putting him back at shortstop allowed Luke Davis to move back to his natural position at second base. That seemed to stabilize the entire defense, as Highland had just two errors to Madison’s nine across the two games.

In the second game, Durham started a 6-4-3 double play in the first to help starter Easton Eddie get out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam with just one run scoring. He made the play on a hard-hit ground ball up the middle in the fifth to end the inning with the bases loaded. And with Madison making a desperate push in the seventh, he grabbed another ground ball and tagged out the runner trying to get back to second, killing the Bobcats’ momentum after three straight batters had reached base to start the inning.

“I just saw the runner stutter-step, and he kind of slipped,” Durham said, “so I just figured I’d tag him, and then if I had a chance to throw to first base, I would.”

Trem Tolman replaced Eddie after a shaky three innings for the Highland starter and threw a scoreless fourth, fifth and sixth as the Rams took the lead back.

Madison cut the lead to 10-6 in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate with one out, but Tolman got a strikeout and a fly out to Baker in center to end it.

“I’m relieved,” Colonel said after the game. “Madison’s a good team. It’s hard to beat a team five times in a year. We swept them in the regular season, but they’re a scrappy bunch, well-coached. I’m proud of our guys. They played the small game really well today. They bunted, they played defense and they got runners in. They did a good job.”

HIGHLAND 4, MADISON 2

Madison 101 000 0 — 2 6 4

Highland 100 120 x — 4 5 0

Highland — WP: Jaxon Christensen. 2B: Easton Eddie.

HIGHLAND 10, MADISON 6

Madison 103 000 2 — 6 12 5

Highland 205 003 x — 10 9 2

Highland — WP: Trem Tolman. 2B: Scott Baker, Easton Eddie, Colton Sneddon.