After Colorado’s usually wild and crazy Class 5A baseball district rounds gave us an extra-added mix of late rallies, walk-off home runs, rain delays, the top seed (Cherry Creek) being knocked off, problems after what amounted to a mini-man-made flood (in Grand Junction), and significant scheduling conflicts with proms and planes (mostly Arapahoe, which went back and forth across the mountains), what do we have left besides another batch of reasons to extend the season into June?
Color it an interesting final eight with the defending champion (Grand Junction); four relative newcomers that have yet to come close to winning a baseball title (Chaparral, Grandview, Monarch and Mountain Vista); two others with tenure yet still seeking their first (Fort Collins and Heritage); and another with a lower-level pennant to its credit (Columbine, 1991, 5A in a 6A system).
In other words, in-state big-school baseball is experiencing a significant change at the top.
And it should be no surprise that it remains anyone’s title – the balance is there.
A year ago, Grand Junction all but stunned the metropolitan area with a convincing run through the 5A Championship Series with its first championship since 1976.
Trust me, the Tigers understand their giddy feeling in 2005 could just as easily be repeated or passed off to one of seven other groups.
“We came into the season wondering how it would look,” Grand Junction coach Kyle Rush said.
Now, it looks great despite so many new faces replacing top-flight quality, particularly on the mound. But Mark Novotny, he of the rocket arm in the outfield, plus powerful Ben Sawyer, Shay Starr and Isiah Quigley have led a surge that has produced a 14-game winning streak.
Of the newer schools that began popping up in the tidal wave of development in the 1990s that continues today, nearly immediate competitiveness, success and solid team play in suburbia are common threads. The fresh, richer look of newer schools and facilities has drawn talent, established early credibility for programs in their infancies, created a real hunger for elite status that has widened the field considerably and resulted in first-run appearances in the most important rounds on the schedule.
Chaparral, for instance, has been knocking hard at the elite door of 5A the past few seasons and is here through balance in the batting order and a deeper staff of arms from which to choose. The Wolverines’ Danny Catts, Mike Frank, Corey Gaudet, Ryan Serena and Mike Smigiel highlight a long list of contributors.
Grandview could lay claim to the favorite as the highest seed (No. 2) remaining, and the Wolves probably would be correct, considering their only loss in-state was to Cherry Creek. But they need to know better, said coach Dean Adams, who spoke of “new goals and more hard work” after claiming District 8 last weekend. He has a point – Grandview is this far through defense, contributions up and down the order and newfound consistency. Behind Jared Schle- huber, Cole Leonida, Nate Schmoll, Blake Tagmyer and Kyle Orgill, Grandview enters on a 15-game roll.
Monarch pounded its way to a Front Range League crown before edging Arvada West 2-1 in the district final. It was good for the Coyotes, behind sluggers Wade Lan- dowski, Mikey Raudenbush and Marcus Valenzuela, to know they can progress even in lower-scoring games.
It has been quite the emergence for Mountain Vista, which fell by three runs or fewer in six of its eight losses. The Golden Eagles won the Continental League title; dropped four of their past eight games; had a 1-0 victory over Chaparral; and gained a measure of revenge against Rangeview, which downed Mountain Vista 6-4 in the regular season, but fell 6-0 in the district finale. Beware. Joe Allison and James Katsaros are coming off decisive pitching performances, having surrendered a district-low (along with Monarch) two runs.
Fort Collins, which dates to the 1890s, and Heritage, born in the 1970s, are here after surprisingly similar circumstances – they are the only teams that survived without being a district host. Fort Collins, behind Brian Bello and Garrett Houts, had a tough road, taking down No. 17 Air Academy, then No. 1 Cherry Creek, and Heritage, which kept it together in a tough Continental, was the most resilient in getting past 10th-seeded Rocky Mountain and Colorado Springs champion and No. 7 Doherty as No. 9 hitter Dan Neumann cracked three home runs and Eric Skufca earned a pitching win and save.
Pitching is big at Columbine, too, where Evan Anundsen (the state’s top professional prospect) struck out 19 batters over two games. Never mind the Rebels plated only nine runs. They were enough. The Jeffco champions, who began 1-5, were righted behind scrappers such as Jeff Cicchinelli, J.T. Baum and junior catcher C.J. Gillman.
