Arvada West, which placed eighth at last season’s Class 5A state wrestling tournament, begins the season atop the On The Mat rankings.
Defending champions Broomfield (4A) and Paonia (2A) also open the season as preseason No. 1s. Brush, a fifth-place finisher last season, is atop the 3A ranking.
Pomona, the defending 5A champion, opens the season at No. 4.
Alamosa won the 3A title last year, and is No. 5 in that preseason ranking.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
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Windsor (4A), Lamar (3A), Vail Christian and Rocky Mountain Lutheran (1A) are newcomers to this week’s CHSAANow.com volleyball polls.
The five No. 1s from last week — Grandview (5A), Lewis-Palmer (4A), Manitou Springs (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Caliche (1A) — all stayed put.
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.
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.
Strasburg’s players run onto the field to celebrate their 3A softball championship. More photos. (Jordan Morey/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — Strasburg senior pitcher Logan Losh picked the right time to tie her school’s single-game strikeout record.
Losh whiffed 14 batters in softball’s Class 3A championship game and helped her Indians earned their second consecutive state title by beating Sterling 3-0 at Aurora Sports Park on Sunday.
“I was really looking for my riseball,” said Losh, whose grandfather, Lonnie Losh, is Strasburg’s pitching coach and has helped groom Logan into one of, if not the greatest, pitcher in Strasburg history.
“We were communicating through the entire game,” Logan Losh said. “I’ve always trusted him to make the correct calls.”
In both games of its games Sunday, Strasburg failed to get a run until the fifth inning abd had to rely on their stellar fielding to win each game.
“We played great defense, and played together in both games,” Lonnie Losh said. “Different people picked us up at different times when we needed them. It’s all about being a team.”
Strasburg had a tough test before facing Sterling, needing extra innings to advance in the semifinals against Valley.
That game was scoreless through five innings. Valley opened the scoring in the sixth when McKenzie Bond knocked two in. Strasburg responded when Danni Klein hit a triple deep to left field that tied the game at 2. Klein also drove in the winning runner at the bottom of the eighth to grab the win.
Klein, Losh and Victoria Wilson have played together since they were eight-years-old. Each of the Seniors played a crucial role in the championship run.
On top of her pitching, Losh also hit very well — she had two separate singles that each resulted in RBIs against Sterling. Klein had a good final game, hitting a double and snagging a steal in the second. Wilson teamed up with Logan from behind the plate.
With this year’s state championship under its belt, Strasburg finishes the season at 24-0 — a school record. Last year, Strasburg finished 20-3 — now good enough for second best in school history.
In the last five seasons, coach Michelle Woodard has accumulated a record of 81-25. As recently as 2009, Strasburg finished 11-12 — Woodard has created a winning program with a great coaching staff.
Lonnie Losh had nothing but praise for the kids he’s worked with this past year. He said that the girls have been involved in other activities such as participating in a food drive.
“In all my years of coaching, and it’s a lot, I have never been around such a great group of kids,” Lonnie Losh said.
Strasburg’s championship 3A softball team. More photos. (Jordan Morey/CHSAANow.com)Strasburg vs. Sterling in the 3A softball championship. More photos. (Jordan Morey/CHSAANow.com)More photos. (Jordan Morey/CHSAANow.com)
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.
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.
