Louisville – They do the mash … Coyotes do the Monarch Mash … It caught on in a flash … And it’s a ballyard smash …
Scary, isn’t it? Monarch’s baseball team, comprised of players in their late teens who were heading to the ballpark together well before the dawn of Under Armour, Knee Savers and $200 metal bats, has been lighting up scoreboards and wearing out official scorers at an alarming rate.
It’s as if Monarch has changed its game from baseball to slowpitch softball.
Ranked No. 3 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, the Coyotes, undefeated champions of the Front Range League and 15-3 overall, have scored a ridiculous 236 runs in 18 games (13.1 per game). It’s very difficult to do, particularly considering it’s 5A ball. To put that in perspective, their scoring total supercedes that of 18 other big-school teams … in 2005 football.
“Yeah, we are a bunch of mashers,” Coyotes coach Carmen Rivas said. “It’s just a bunch of kids who understand how to hit.”
Hit? It’s more a series of collisions. Rivas, who also has tenure at Centaurus and Regis, could see some of it coming. He took over three years ago and was thrilled about the younger talent. The Coyotes also had a huge summer heading into the season, staying together and holding their own against teams that basically were groups of all- stars.
Now, Monarch is having lots of senior moments and it’s a good thing. With 15 12th-graders, many who were together in Little League, the Coyotes have been ripping line drives, losing balls over fences and wearing out paths to home plate.
Overall, Monarch has scored 10 or more runs in a dozen games. In seven Front Range League games, Monarch has scored 116 times with a high of 29 against Poudre. During one particularly wild four-game league stretch, the Coyotes plated 89 runs.
Of their 210 hits through Tuesday, virtually half (104) were for extra bases, including 38 home runs. As a team, Monarch was batting .436 with a slugging percentage of .794.
“By far, this is the best hitting lineup I’ve been around,” Rivas said. “One through nine in the order is capable of driving the ball in the gap.”
A few are fond of taking it further. The Coyotes’ biggest bopper is shortstop Wade Landow- ski, a home-run threat from the time he puts on his spikes. The sound of Landowski’s bat meeting a baseball is akin to a sledgehammer on an anvil. He has 10 round-trippers in 2006 and, after 12 a year ago, 22 in 36 games.
“We’re mostly looking to hit it hard somewhere and that comes as the end result,” Landowski said of his and his teammates’ ability to clear fences and walls as if they were steeplechasers.
Healed from the pounding he took as one of 4A’s premier running backs, the 5-foot-11, 205- pound Landowski (.452 average, 34 runs batted in) bats cleanup in a lineup that includes Mike Goldstein (.390), Marcus Valenzuela (.574, eight homers, 31 RBIs), Mikey Raudenbush (.544, six homers, 27 RBIs), Tyler Dunn (22 RBIs), Joe Manders (.417, 21 RBIs), and Billy Smart (.519, 15 RBIs). They could be a lucky seven reasons why the Coyotes feel good about contending in next month’s 5A Championship Series, a double- elimination format that leaves little doubt in determining a titlist.
It would be a major step for Monarch, which went out meekly a year ago, 3-1 to Mullen in the first round of districts.
“That’s the goal,” Landowski said.
The Coyotes, who have been successful at the plate by spraying it around the field and against pitching that has tested them in and away, still need to shore up their pitching and defense. They have won games 24-18 and 20-14 and 13-11.
“We have some things to clean up,” Rivas said.
There will be no walkovers once districts begin in nine days and he knows his Coyotes will have to be well-rounded to do anything in the postseason.
And while they were right there in dropping two one-run decisions (to Arapahoe and Regis, their only two losses in state), the Coyotes also earned quality victories over Arvada West, Wheat Ridge, ThunderRidge, Eaglecrest, Northglenn and Rocky Mountain.
Monarch could meet any of the above again or any of the other following potential roadblocks: top-ranked Cherry Creek, which has 22 seniors, and Grandview from the Centennial; defending state champion Grand Junction; Jefferson County’s Columbine; the top of a heavy Continental that also will include Chaparral and Mountain Vista; and Colorado Springs’ Doherty.
Rivas said he sees a lot of last year’s Grand Junction team, which won its first title in 29 years, in the Coyotes.
That remains to be seen, but one thing is certain.
The Coyotes, riding the sweet music of their Monarch Mash, are determined not to be a one- hit wonder.
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-820-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
