She’s the fourth known local volleyball player from the 2016 class to make her college choice.
Conifer’s Makenna Browne is headed to Oregon State, Lewis-Palmer’s Mariah Evans pledged to North Carolina and Brighton’s Karysa Swackenberg committed to Rutgers. (Find other class of 2016 commits in our database.)
Last season, Wetterstrom averaged 2.4 kills and 1.9 digs per set, and also had 39 total aces. At 6-foot-1, Wetterstrom plays on both the outside and in the middle — she had a team-high 1.0 blocks per set.
Longmont reached the Class 4A state tournament last season, where it went 1-1 in pool play.
Wetterstrom also plays basketball, where she averaged a team-high 17.4 points per game as a forward, and runs track. She was second in the triple jump at the 4A state track meet last spring, and also qualified for the meet in the high jump.
The 2014 all-state baseball teams honor the best players in the sport as judged by the leagues and coaches. They are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues and coaches, and then a vote of coaches.
Players of the year were also selected by a vote of the coaches.
LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain catcher Justin Akiyama spent early Friday morning dressed in his graduation gown, celebrating the end of his journey as a high school student. Hours later he lifted a bloop-single into shallow left field, driving home two runs and extending his career as a high school baseball player for another day.
Trailing the Durango Demons 6-5 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Rams remained patient at the plate, loading the bases with three-straight walks. That’s when Akiyama worked the count full before bringing in the two runners to give Green Mountain a 7-6 win and an opportunity to play for the Class 4A state championship.
“I was thinking I just had to believe in myself,” Akiyama said. “I’ve come up big with some clutch hits throughout the season, but haven’t hit well overall and was able to come up with that hit when we needed it.”
What started out as a pitchers’ duel for the first few innings turned into an offensive outburst. In the top of the third inning, the Demons were able to break a scoreless tie with a five-run rally that was triggered with a two-RBI double by Blake Dunlap.
Dunlap and two other Demons would cross the plate before the end of the inning to give them a 5-0 lead. The Rams began their effort to claw back by scoring one off Demons pitcher Lawrence Mayberry. It was in the bottom of the fourth that Mayberry was replaced by junior Casey Dunlap who struggled right out of the gate. He walked three batters while hitting two others, allowing the Rams to fight back and tie the game at 5.
“That’s been this team all playoffs, we’ve been down to our last out three or four times in an elimination game,” Rams coach Brad Madden said. “But they kept believing and I think we let them off the hook a couple of times where I thought we could really blow it open.”
The Rams botched an attempt to turn an inning-ending double play in the sixth, giving Durango a one-run lead late in the game. As the younger Dunlap settled in on the mound, the Demons coaching staff showed enough faith to let him finish the game. After recording two quick outs in the seventh inning, Dunlap walked the bases loaded prior to giving up the game-winning hit by Akiyama.
The win for the Rams cleared up part of the picture for Saturday’s action. With Niwot standing as the only unbeaten team in the state bracket entering the day, a win over Longmont would have pit them against Green Mountain for the title, with the Rams having to win twice to take a state championship. But the easy path was not in store for Niwot, which fell to the Cougars 11-4 in the second half of Friday’s double header.
The Cougars opted to send sophomore Ford Ladd to the mound against their league rival. Ladd had thrown a shutout against Durango and seemed to be up to the task of eliminating the Trojans.
Longmont had other ideas as it wase able to get to Ladd early and chip away to a 4-0 lead. With two outs in the third inning, he was pulled in favor of Cameron Kopplinger who was able to contain the Longmont bats through the third, fourth and fifth innings.
After two hits and walk to load the bases in the sixth, Andrew Baldt slammed the door on the game by crushing a hanging curveball for a grand slam.
“I knew I hit it square, but had a second thought because I knew it was pretty damn deep (in left-center field),” Baldt said. “I started running a bit but it got over.”
With a six-run lead, the Trojans were able to coast the rest of the way. They exorcised the demons of getting beat by Niwot twice in the regular season and are heading into Saturday loaded with confidence.
“The difference today was that (Niwot) didn’t hit it like they normally do,” coach Tom Fobes said. “Will (Amen) just did a great job (on the mound) and when you can hold them to four runs it’s pretty good and we finally got guys on base and came up with those big hits.”
Longmont’s win over Niwot sets up a true semifinal game between the Trojans and Green Mountain at 10 a.m. Saturday morning. The winner of that game will face Niwot at 12:30 p.m. for the 4A state championship.
LAKEWOOD — Never has the old adage that “baseball is a game of inches” been more true.
Just over 24 hours ago, Green Mountain catcher Justin Akiyama took a 2-2 pitch that was just off the plate. If called a strike, the Rams would have lost to Durango and been eliminated from the Class 4A state baseball tournament. Instead they celebrated as state champions Saturday afternoon with a 10-2 win over the Niwot Cougars.
They earned the right to play the Cougars after defeating Longmont 9-1 in the preliminary game Saturday morning. They did so behind the solid pitching performance of junior Talon Schaller. He threw a complete game, giving up only two hits and a single run against the Trojans. He was so efficient in the first game that Rams coach Brad Madden didn’t hesitate to send Schaller out to start the championship game.
“He looked so good in the first game and only threw 72 pitches, mowing through (Longmont) pretty easily,” Madden said. “We knew we were going to have to use him again anyways so we figured with only the half-hour break (between games) let’s just run him out there and (score) as many as we could and he just started mowing them down.”
Between the two games, Schaller threw 12 innings, giving up four total hits and one run on the day. He only surrendered a single walk between the two games. He had to be pulled after the fifth inning of the state championship game due to CHSAA rules limiting a pitcher to 12 innings in a 72-hour span.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Prior to his last inning, the Rams bats gave him a big enough cushion to put Schaller in line for his second win of the day. A single and a walk put runners on first and second with sophomore Wyatt Featherston stepping up to the plate. He worked the count full then blasted a home run to left-center to put the Rams up 4-0.
“I knew it was out of the ballpark, I felt amazing about it,” Featherston said. “I knew I needed to drive in my buddies and I looked for my pitch and I got one, driving it out of the yard and it felt amazing.”
Schaller finally gave way to Josh Ramirez who threw a complete game against Durango on Friday, and although he gave up two runs in the final two innings, he never let the Cougars get comfortable and was able to slam the door shut for the Rams.
As solid as the Rams were on the mound, the Cougars never looked comfortable. Green Mountain was able to chase off Niwot ace Bryan Meek in the fifth inning. The sixth inning turned into a nightmare for the Cougars who gave up six runs — four of which were walked in either Nick Elrod or Aldair Cintora.
But the rally aside, the Rams are state champions because of the solid performance of Schaller through the two games.
“I’m just happy to be out here, man — what a day,” he said after the game. “Coach didn’t really tell me what the plan was, but I knew I was going to pitch two and then Josh would finish. He just told me to give it my all and I was just happy to be there.”
The win is a nice send off for the three seniors in the Green Mountain lineup. Since Akiyama’s walk-off hit Friday, the Rams have been energized and borderline destined to walk away as champions.
“That’s kind of the way we’ve been living our last four weeks, we’ve been down to our last out and our last strike,” Madden said. “Our kids will not give up. They will keep fighting and keep fighting.”
The Rams will lose three starters from their roster as Akiyama, Andrew Abercrombie and Josh Rogers have all graduated. But the core of this championship team in Schaller, Ramirez, Schaller and shortstop Cole Shetterly will all return next season to try and defend their title.
“It’s a tribute to them and the great leadership that they brought to us,” Madden said. “Next year is a new year and we’ll get back at it in the summer and fall but for right now we’re going to enjoy this for at least the next six months.”
