Ordinarily, there’s no tying in baseball, but there is in Colorado schoolboy play.
While Wednesday’s Class 3A nonleague matchup of Faith Christian vs. Eaton that ended in a 5-5 draw after seven innings had nothing to do with inconvenience of completing it at a later date, inclement weather or rising fuel costs, the game, which was played at Coors Field, ultimately was about time, specifically the lack of it.
The two mid-range challengers surpassed the two-hour time limit imposed by Rockies officials and would have threatened to hold up the next game, Standley Lake-Northglenn, a 5A nonleague matchup.
The game, the first of the season for the 2006 schoolboy series at a cold but luscious-turfed Coors Field, was officially called by umpires. Since it was not ended by darkness or bad weather, it could not be resumed at a later date, and it went into the books as a tie.
Faith Christian is 4-1-1. Eaton is 1-0-1. The records look odd for baseball teams, and so were the accompanying tastes in participants’ mouths.
“There’s no tying in baseball. Yeah, I know it,” veteran Eaton coach Jim Danley said. “Ties in some ways are harder than losses.”
Said Faith Christian coach Gino Carbajal: “We get two hours, but if we would have taken care of business, we wouldn’t have had to worry about it. They’re expecting bad weather later, and they had to get their next game in.”
Both teams committed four errors but had their chances. Eaton grabbed a 2-0 lead, quickly gave it away and trailed by three runs, then clawed back to make it 5-5. The Reds also left the potential game-winning run in scoring position in the seventh.
Faith Christian’s John Hegarty ripped a three-run triple to left-center field in the second, Dave Fox tripled and scored in the third and starter Zach McBeth threw five fairly strong innings. Sophomore Jobi Wall added a triple and a sacrifice fly.
The Eagles, as Carbajal lamented after the game, also had runners at second and third with one out in the top of the seventh and failed to score as the next two hitters fanned.
For Eaton, which went 0-for-8 at the top of its order and stranded 11 baserunners, Drew Smith knocked in three runs, including a two-run single in the first, and No. 9 hitter Kyle Ottoson singled three times, walked and scored. Catcher Jared Carlson scored twice and doubled, and shortstop Shane Dyer walked three times, scored twice and singled. He also came on in relief in the third and allowed only one hit.
Technically, Dyer and Zach McCleskey, who pitched the final two innings for Faith Christian, have ties on their records.
Dyer was miffed how the game ended, saying: “It puts such a damper on the performance of everybody. But you just have to look forward … and it’s definitely fun to play here.”
Said Danley, whose program has won seven Colorado championships since 1994: “It’s really good because you’ll never play in a better place, and after you play here you’ll never be impressed by anybody’s ballyard.”
Faith Christian 041 000 0 – 5 7 4
Eaton 200 021 0 – 5 7 4
Faith Christian – S. Carbajal c 4-0-1-0, Rayfield rf 3-0-0-0, Fox cf 4-1-1-0, Anderson 3b 3-1-1-0, Wall ss 3-1-2-1, Rivera dh 4-1-1-0, Henry 2b 0-0-0-0, John Hegarty 1b 2-1-1-3, McBeth p-2b 3-0-0-0, Bonafi lf 2-0-0-0, McCleskey p 0-0-0-0. Totals 28-5-7-4.
Eaton – Jones cf 4-0-0-0, Payne 4-0-0-0, Dyer ss-p 1-2-1-0, J. Carlson c 3-2-1-0, Smith 3b 3-0-2-3, Hood lf 3-0-0-1, Harris dh 3-0-0-0, McClavey 2b 0-0-0-0, Ball rf 4-0-0-0, Ottoson 1b 3-1-3-0, Monfort cr 0-0-0-0, Ruff cr 0-0-0-0, A. Carlson 0-0-0-0. Totals 28-5-7-4.
E – Anderson 3, Bonafi; Payne 2, Dyer, Carlson. LOB – Faith Christian 7, Eaton 11. DP – Faith, Christian, Eaton. SB – Anderson. Caught stealing – Smith. 2B – J. Carlson. 3B – Hegarty, Fox, Wall.
Batteries – McBeth, McCleskey (6) and S. Carbajal; Payne, Dyer (3) and J. Carlson. SAC – Anderson. SF – Wall, Hood. PB – S. Carbajal.
Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-820-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
