THORNTON — Fairview won girls swimming’s annual Coaches Invite at VMAC on Saturday. The Knights’ 271 total team points bested second-place Cherry Creek (238) and third-place Regis Jesuit (217).
LAFAYETTE — Brielle Brady had 23 points and seven assists and three steals in leading Brighton girls basketball to a 60-33 win over Erie on Tuesday. Cassie Kaiser and Brittani Zink each added 10 points.
Aurora Sports Park sits quiet prior to Saturday’s action. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) A roundup of Saturday’s action at the state softball tournaments at Aurora Sports Park.
AURORA — Fossil Ridge won its first two games at Saturday’s opening rounds of the 5A state softball tournament by a combined score of 29-7. It now finds itself in the semifinals for the first time in school history.
In fact, Fossil Ridge had never even won a game at the state tournament before Saturday.
The third-seeded SaberCats beat No. 14 Pine Creek in the opening round, 10-3, then followed with a 19-4 mercy-rule-shortened win over No. 6 Eaglecrest which ended on Haley Donaldson’s walk-off three-run home run.
Legacy softball coach Dawn Gaffin goes over instructions between innings Saturday afternoon during the Lightning’s 8-1 quarterfinal victory against Dakota Ridge. Legacy, 5-time Class 5A state champion, will face Brighton in the 5A state semifinals 10 a.m. Sunday at Aurora Sports Park. More photos. (Dennis Pleuss)
Fossil Ridge is 22-1 in 2013. The SaberCats’ lone loss this season came to Legacy on Sept. 16. They could get a rematch on Saturday — but first they’ll need to get past No. 7 Legend, another first-timer in the semis.
Legend (19-5) dispatched No. 10 Grandview 13-8 to open the tournament, then beat No. 2 Rock Canyon 6-1 in the quartefinals.
No. 9 Brighton was the lone team to knock off a No. 1 seed on Saturday. The Bulldogs, now 22-2, beat No. 1 Douglas County 8-4 in the quarterfinals. That followed an 11-1 win over No. 8 Loveland, the defending champion.
In the semis, Brighton will get No. 5 Legacy, which beat a pair of Jeffco squads (Chatfield and Dakota Ridge) to earn its seventh consecutive berth into the state tournament semifinals.
No. 12 Chatfield gave Legacy a tough test before the Lightning pulled away in the late innings for a 6-2 win.
“I think we kind of learned from it,” Legacy senior pitcher Haley Smith said. “Our bats were kind of cold at first, but we had everybody set up.”
Legacy used some “small ball” tactics in the third inning against No. 4 Dakota Ridge to score four runs on the way to an 8-1 victory.
Despite the rich tradition of winning five straight 5A state crowns from 2007 to 2011, Smith doesn’t believe Legacy will be nervous going into the semifinals.
“If anything I think there is less pressure because everyone thinks we can’t do it,” Smith said. “We are the underdogs.”
Semifinal games:
(9) Brighton vs. (5) Legacy, 10 a.m.
(3) Fossil Ridge vs. (7) Legend, 10 a.m.
[divider] Broomfield is headed to the semifinals. More photos. (Pam Wagner)
Fifth-seeded Broomfield narrowly survived being No. 13 D’Evelyn’s second upset victim of the day. But the Eagles did survive, and advance, to the 4A semifinals on Sunday.
Broomfield rallied from 2-0 and 4-2 holes to hold on and beat D’Evelyn 7-6 on Saturday. The Eagles had a four-run fifth-inning which led to the win. They will face top-seeded Wheat Ridge in the semifinals.
Wheat Ridge junior Erin Dalton connects with a pitch during the Farmers’ 5-0 win against Roosevelt in the opening round of the Class 4A state softball tournament Saturday at Aurora Sports Park. More photos. (Dennis Pleuss)
Wheat Ridge didn’t have much problem advancing.
The Farmers shut out No. 16 Roosevelt by a 5-0 score in the opening round and cranked out 11 hits in a 9-4 quarterfinal victory against No. 8 Mountain View. Still, Wheat Ridge coach Marty Stricklett said there is “some improving to do” going into the final day of the season.
The Farmers edged Broomfield 2-0 earlier this season. Sophomore Christina Nelson hit a two-run home run in the first inning and senior pitcher Jessica Salbato pitched a shutout against Broomfield back on Aug. 30.
A 1-0 loss to Niwot in the 4A semifinals last year still motivates the Farmers heading into their eighth straight trip to the state semifinals.
“Tomorrow we are still going off what happened last year,” Stricklett said. “We’ve got to show up and play our game. The name of our game is hitting. We’ve got to hit the ball.”
On the other side of the bracket, No. 6 Erie beat No. 11 Silver Creek 11-1 and No. 3 Pueblo East 7-1 to advance to Sunday. The Tigers will face No. 2 Ponderosa, which escaped No. 15 Palmer Ridge’s upset bid, 5-4, to open the tournament, then beat No. 7 Berthoud 6-0 in the quarters.
The four semifinalists at the 3A level each only played one game on Saturday. That’s because Strasburg, Sterling, Holy Family and Valley all had opening-round byes as seeds Nos. 1-4.
Top-seeded Strasburg beat No. 9 Basalt 11-0, and will meet No. 4 Valley, which eeked past No. 5 Eaton 1-0.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 Sterling will meet No. 3 Holy Family. Sterling beat No. 7 Lamar 5-0 and Holy Family beat No. 11 Dolores Huerta 3-0.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Eaglecrest held onto its spot atop the CHSAANow.com softball poll, but things are getting close at the top of the Class 5A ranking.
Four different teams received first-place votes this week: Brighton (No. 2), Douglas County (No. 3) and Fossil Ridge (No. 5). Loveland was the lone newcomer to the poll, at tenth.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Rock Canyon 17, Grand Junction 16, Standley Lake 12, Arvada West 10, Pine Creek 9, ThunderRidge 7, Chatfield 4, Rampart 4, Columbine 3, Rocky Mountain 3, Cherokee Trail 2, Mountain Vista 2.
Dropped out
Rock Canyon (10).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Wheat Ridge (12)
9-1-0
120
1
1-1-0
2
Erie
7-2-1
96
3
2-0-0
3
Pueblo East
7-2-1
90
2
2-0-0
4
Ponderosa
8-1-0
77
4
2-0-0
5
Frederick
6-3-0
61
5
2-1-0
6
Silver Creek
7-3-0
51
6
1-1-0
7
Berthoud
7-2-0
50
8
3-1-0
8
Broomfield
5-4-0
24
7
1-0-0
9
D’Evelyn
6-2-0
20
9
3-2-0
10
Pueblo South
7-2-0
17
–
1-1-0
Others receiving votes:
Valor Christian 14, Discovery Canyon 13, Pueblo West 12, Mullen 4, Roosevelt 4, Niwot 3, Thomas Jefferson 2, Thompson Valley 2, Falcon 1.
Wheat Ridge has overtaken Pueblo East atop the Class 4A CHSAANow.com softball poll.
The Farmers, off to an 8-0-0 start, were No. 2 last week but moved up to No. 1 by virtue of a 6-0-0 week which included a 7-2 victory over Pueblo East, last week’s top-ranked team.
Elsewhere, Douglas County went from unranked to No. 3 in the 5A poll, which also added Ralston Valley (No. 8) and Fossil Ridge (No. 9).
Loveland 24, Arvada West 14, Chatfield 14, Grand Junction 12, Cherokee Trail 7, Bear Creek 4, Rampart 4, Castle View 2, Denver East 2, Mountain Vista 2, Prairie View 2, Standley Lake 1.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Wheat Ridge (6)
8-0-0
84
2
6-0-0
2
Pueblo East (3)
5-2-1
79
1
2-2-1
3
Erie
5-2-1
75
3
3-2-1
4
Ponderosa
6-1-0
60
4
4-1-0
5
Frederick
4-2-0
42
5
1-2-0
6
Silver Creek
6-2-0
32
8
4-2-0
7
Broomfield
4-4-0
25
–
3-3-0
8
Berthoud
4-1-0
24
7
2-1-0
9
D’Evelyn
3-0-0
16
10
1-0-0
10
Niwot
1-2-0
12
6
0-2-0
Others receiving votes:
Discovery Canyon 10, Mullen 9, Pueblo South 7, Montrose 6, Valor Christian 5, Mountain View 2, Palmer Ridge 2, Pueblo West 2, Roosevelt 1, Sand Creek 1, Weld Central 1.
