The final remaining teams at the state basebll tournament competed accross the state on Saturday’s second day of the baseball state tournament in Classes 2A-5A. Here’s an update on what happened.
CLASS 5A
No. 5 Broomfield doesn’t lack for talent, and it also doesn’t fall short on confidence.
The Eagles, backed by an energetic hurler, and red-hot lineup, topped No. 3 Chaparral, 20-10 in six at the 5A CHSAA state baseball playoffs Saturday at All City Stadium.
Four different innings saw Broomfield tally multiple runs, thanks in part to a three-run home run in the fourth inning by senior Gavin Spiers and a grand slam from fellow senior Dylan Harris in the sixth.
“We started rocky with striking out a lot, but we just turned on around the middle of the season,” Spiers said. “This past weekend, it just came down to our whole lineup hitting — even our seven-hole hitting a grand slam.”
With the bats hot, the Eagles stayed picky. The 20 runs were made up of 11 hits, 10 walks and five batters reaching on a hit by pitch.
“We’ve had a focus on quality at-bats,” coach Kale Gilmore said. “We’re not concerned about stats, because it’s about getting the next man up. They’re playing mature right now.”
Broomfield will play No. 7 Cherokee Trail in the semifinals next Friday with a chance to reach the title game next Saturday at 11 a.m. at All City Stadium without a loss.
Chaparral will play the winner of No. 2 Legacy next Friday at 2:30 p.m. at All City Stadium.
No. 2 Legacy vs. No. 6 Vista Ridge and No. 8 Douglas County
The Lightning may not have struck Friday in an upset loss to No. 7 Cherokee Trail, but Legacy found a way to bounce back in Saturday’s back-to-back, elimination bracket wins.
Against Vista Ridge, the Legacy lineup overcame Wolves’ ace, senior Luke Singleton, en route to a close win — tacking on an insurance run with some smooth base running before taking it 5-3.
Tactical moves were used against Vista Ridge, but it was a home run that sparked the 10-3 win over the Huskies. Junior Marcus Romero lined a shot to left field that landed on the batting cages of All-Star Park before the Lightning scored four more runs in the inning to pull away for good.
No. 7 Cherokee Trail vs. No. 1 Regis Jesuit
Miscues doomed the Raiders after toppling No. 4 Valor Christian earlier in the day, and Cherokee Trail was quick to take advantage.
The Cougars used five walks, hit by pitches and Regis Jesuit errors, respectively, to scratch across 10 runs in the second and third innings of the 10-6 win despite just four hits in the game’s seven innings.
Cherokee Trail senior Andrew Godfrey tossed six innings and struck out six while allowing just six hits and two earned runs in the win.
The Cougars will face Legacy for the second time in the tournament Friday after falling to the Lightning, 6-2, in the 5A playoff’s first round.
CLASS 4A
Ponderosa looks like a runaway freight train plowing over anything in its path to a second straight Class 4A baseball state championship.
The Mustangs improved to 3-0 during the first weekend of the double-elimination state tournament in Colorado Springs on Saturday afternoon. Ponderosa had an incredible dominating performance against Erie at Mountain Lion Park at UCCS hitting six home runs in a 19-0 victory in four innings against the Tigers.
“Is this going to continue? I sure hope it does,” Ponderosa coach Bob Maloney said of the Mustangs putting up 44 run in three state playoff wins against Palisade, Cheyenne Mountain and Erie at UCCS on Friday and Saturday. “We got on a hot streak. It was incredible to watch. We have the talent, but we don’t expect to win every game like that.”
It was almost unreal what Ponderosa (21-7 record) did in the top of the first inning against Erie (19-8). The Mustangs scored 11 runs on 10 hits while sending 15 batters to the plate. There were many highlights during the scoring barrage, but the biggest was seniors Dylan Carey, Parker Dennis and Derek Lukes going back-to-back-to-back with home runs to open up a 11-0 lead.
“It was huge. I went up there just trying to find a barrel like we’ve been doing,” Carey said before he started the three straight home runs in the first inning after the Mustangs had already batted around in the order taking a 7-0 lead before the home runs starting flying. “I got under one and then it went out. I was pumped then I look out and see another home run. It was crazy.”
The Mustangs were coming off a 5-run first inning against Cheyenne Mountain the day before in a 13-8 win.
“We are just putting up runs in the first inning that I’ve never seen before,” Carey said of Ponderosa combining for 16 runs in the first inning against Cheyenne Mountain and Erie. “It’s non-stop barrel, barrel, barrel from everyone.”
Starting pitcher Tyler Smith helped himself out ripping a solo home run to start the 4-run top of the second inning for the defending state champions. Carey added a 3-run blast later in the inning to push the lead to 15-0.
Senior Dylan Buice pinch-hit for Smith in the top of the fourth inning and belted a 3-run home run for the sixth home run of the game for Ponderosa to make it a 19-0 lead.
“Based on this weekend, we are hitting everything,” Smith said. “Anything and everything that is thrown at us we are hitting it.”
Smith was impressive on the mound giving up just four hits against Erie that came in with back-to-back victories the day before against Golden and D’Evelyn. The Tigers had put up 17 runs in the two playoff wins at Vista Ridge High School against the two 4A Jeffco League teams.
“It feels pretty good,” Smith said when asked how it felt to take the mound in the bottom of the first inning with an 11-run lead. “You get pretty comfortable up there. Pitching with the lead is the best thing.”
The only thing Smith was down about after the key victory on the path to another 4A state title for Ponderosa was realizing the Final 4 games won’t be played at Mountain Lion Park where the Mustangs thrived this weekend.
The 4A state tournament moves over to Vibes Stadium — home of the Rocky Mountain Vibes independent professional baseball team — in Colorado Springs for games June 3 and 4.
“The key is to keep this focus going into next Friday,” Maloney said of his team that featured 13 seniors. “We have the talent, but it’s baseball. You never know.”
Ponderosa started the state tournament 4-0 last season, but lost to Holy Family during first game on the final day of the tournament to set up a winner-take-all situation. The Mustangs closed the deal with a 11-2 victory in last year’s state championship game.
“We don’t want a loss,” Carey said of hoping going 2-0 next weekend. “We want that 4A state championship under our belt twice.”
D’Evelyn, Erie and Cheyenne Mountain in join Ponderosa in the Final 4 next Friday.
D’Evelyn dominated Palisade with a 13-2 victory in an elimination game at UCCS to give the Jaguars their second straight Final 4 appearance. D’Evelyn will play Ponderosa in the first game Friday, June 3, at Vibes Stadium.
Cheyenne Mountain edged Severance 9-7 in an elimination game at Vista Ridge High School on Saturday afternoon to earn a spot in the semifinals. Erie and Cheyenne Mountain are schedule to play at 2:30 pm Friday at Vibes Stadium.
CLASS 3A
The defending state champion Eaton Reds are the lone undefeated team remaining in the Class 3A state tournament and with their second run-rule victory in as many games look poised to win back-to-back titles.
However, three other teams are still in the mix when action picks back up Friday.
A day after defeating Sterling 17-6 on Friday to set up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown with University on Saturday, the Reds needed only five innings to hand the Bulldogs their first loss of the tournamnament, 12-2 at Butch Butler Field.
“You don’t expect that to happen,” Eaton head coach Todd Hernandez said. “They are a really well-coached team and they play the game the right way. They have a lot of good kids. We were just real fortunate to come out and get some runs early.”
University leadoff hitter River Jackson hit the third pitch of the bottom of the first inning over the fence to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead after one inning. But University would only get one more hit after that.
Eaton starting pitcher Tate Smith wasn’t rattled by the home run and struck out the next three batters. Smith ended up allowing two runs on two hits while striking out seven.
University got a run in the third on an Eaton error and its only other hit off Smith was a single in the fourth.
“River Jackson is a great hitter and the whole plan was to get ahead and obviously I didn’t,” Smith said. “He put a good swing on it and, just listening to Coach Hernandez, you have to flush it and take it one pitch at a time. That was kind of the mentality after that.”
After going down in order in the top of the first, the Reds scored at least two runs in every inning after that.
Eaton got two in the second, four in the third, four in the fourth and two more in the fifth. They did so with timely hitting and taking advantage of University’s mistakes. Four of the Reds’ 12 runs scored on wild pitches.
In the third inning, two Eaten runs came on walks with the bases loaded. Also In that frame, Garrett Garrison had a two-run single. In the fourth, Smith helped himself with an RBI single and Dirk Duncan had an RBI triple.
“We kept saying we need to tack on, we need to tack on,” Hernandez said. “University is explosive. Even that last inning, you get a guy on, you never know. They could hit one out and change the complexion of the game. When you have a chance to end it, you want to make sure that you can do that. We had a couple guys lined up to throw in relief of Tate if we needed it, but you never know.”
Tate walked Jackson to begin the bottom of the fifth, but he induced a pop out, got a strikeout and then Jackson was forced at second on a ground ball to shortstop to end the game.
In Saturday’s elimination games, Resurrection Christian defeated Colorado Academy 6-3 and Bayfield topped Manitou Springs 11-4 to advance. Both lost their next games, however, as RCS lost to Lutheran, 8-4, and Bayfield fell to Sterling in eight innings, 7-6.
That leaves four teams remaining, three of them a loss away from elimination.
Eaton (26-2) will face Lutheran (26-2) at Noon on Friday while University (23-5) will face Sterling (22-6) at 2:30 p.m. That will set up Saturday’s championship game, or games if necessary.
CLASS 2A
The semifinal round of the Class 2A single-elimination state tournament was played on Saturday and, sure enough, Limon in back in the championship game.
For an incredible seventh time in their program’s history, the top-seeded Badgers will play for a state title after an 8-4 win over No. 4 Highland. They’ll be looking for their program’s fourth overall title when they take on No. 6 St. Mary’s next Saturday.
In that championship game, Limon will face No. 6 St. Mary’s for all the marbles.
St. Mary’s defeated Peyton, last year’s runner-up and the 2019 champion, in the semifinals by a score of 13-12 in eight innings. On Saturday, St. Mary’s will be playing for its first baseball state title.
Had Peyton won, it would have marked the Panthers’ fourth consecutive championship game appearance.