Pueblo – It was the championship that had kept pitcher-infielder Steve Martin and the rest of his senior teammates waiting for three long years.
In 2004, a late home run by Rangely had knocked the Limon Badgers out of the Class 2A tournament. Last year, leading 3-1 in the top of the seventh, it was a three-run blast by a Wray batter in the regionals that put an abrupt end to another promising season.
So when Martin ripped an inside-the park home run that scored three and gave Limon a 9-1 lead en route to a 16-5, five-inning victory over Haxtun at Hobbs Field at the Runyon Sports Complex on Saturday, he saw it as poetic justice.
“You know six of us seniors have been trying to win this thing for three years,” Martin said. “But we kept coming up a home run short. I guess we were kind of due.
“At first I thought I’d hit it in the gap between center and right, but then it started curving and curving toward the right fielder, and I was thinking, ‘no way.’ But then I saw it got past him, and when I got to third I didn’t even look at the coach. I was going home.”
For Limon coach Les Layton, it was a championship he’d been waiting for for 12 years.
“Actually, it’s been more like 34 years,” the coach said. “We’ve had summer baseball since 1972 but it wasn’t until 1994 that we finally got the school to sanction a team.”
And what that means, Layton said, is that with its first baseball championship, sports-rich Limon finally has a baseball team that its football team can be proud of.
“I’m in charge of the trophy case maintenance, so I guarantee you I’ll find a nice place for it,” Layton said.
Besides the home run, Martin – a wide receiver and defensive back on Limon’s three straight football championship teams – pitched four innings and gave up just two hits. He also had a fourth RBI on a sacrifice fly that scored the Badgers’ 16th run.
Both were against Haxtun reliever Garet Groshans.
Haxtun ace Cameron Ham, who had gone 5 2/3 innings in Friday’s 8-7 semifinal victory over defending champion Las Animas, was called on again to go in the championship game. But he faded fast in the third, giving up three straight walks, and giving up four quick runs on a balk and a double by Randy Nelson.
“We were hoping to get at least four out of him,” Haxtun coach Alan Coffin said. “But you know when you go that long with just 12 guys (five freshmen) you just kind of ran out of bullets. They’re a senior-laden team and it shows.”
LIMON 16, HAXTUN 5
Limon 207 43 – 16 13 1
Haxtun 101 12 – 5 5 3
Limon – Martin p 2-3-1-4, Ververs ss 3-1-2-0, Randolph 3b 2-3-2-1, Coonts 1b 2-1-1-3, Love cf 2-1-0-0, Nelson dh 4-2-3-3, Cummings c 0-0-0-0, Stone rf 3-3-1-0, Layton 2b 3-1-1-1, Liggett lf 3-1-2-2. Totals 24-16-13-14.
Haxtun – Wernsman cf 2-2-1-1, Heermann c 2-1-1-0, Edwards ss 1-1-1-1, Ham p 2-0-1-2, Groshans 2b 2-0-0-1, Kroeger rf 3-1-1-0, Knode 1b 0-0-0-0, Bend dh 2-0-0-0, Larson 3b 2-0-0-0, Ramirez lf 2-0-0-0. Totals 18-5-5-5.
E – Edwards, Larson, Coonts. LOB – Limon 7, Haxtun 5. DP – Limon. 2B – Coonts, Nelson, Layton, Ham. HR – Martin, H, two on in third.
Batteries – Martin, Randolph (4) and Cummings; Ham, Groshans (3) and Heermann. W – Martin. L – Ham. PB – Groshans. HBP – Wernsman, Edwards, Stone, Love, Heermann.
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303 820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
