Greeley – An unheard line from the motion picture “300” – “Spartans, tonight we dine on hanging curves!” – foretold the fate of the Spartans of Thomas Jefferson.
TJ got the timely hit it needed, a double by Mike Mankoff over the head of Ralston Valley center fielder Travis Hayes, to defeat Ralston Valley 5-3 in the Class 4A tournament Friday at Butch Butler Field.
The win assures the Spartans (21-2) of at least playing next week, but first on the docket is a matchup against another Spartans team, Greeley West, on Saturday at Lakewood’s All Star Park.
“We’ve been in this situation before, in 2003, and just sort of took it as “Hey, we’re in the final four,”‘ TJ coach Tory Humphrey said. “We want to go get that third game, we want to walk away from this weekend with three wins.”
The task becomes a little bit more daunting for Ralston Valley (18-5), which is without star Matt Skipper, who spent Friday at Children’s Hospital with unrelenting migraines. The Mustangs must win today’s game against the winner of Cherokee Trail and Niwot to stay alive.
“We’ve got a competitive bunch, and we’re going to battle (Saturday),” Ralston Valley coach Shane Freehling said. “We knew we had to win two baseball games, and it really doesn’t matter how we do it. We have to win two, and that’s what we intend on doing.”
TJ fell behind 2-0 in the third, when Ralston’s Brian Chritz drove in his seventh and eighth runs of the day with an infield single that trickled off the glove of shortstop Tyler Thornton.
But the Spartans, who pounded out 17 hits in a 15-3 rout of Northridge in the first game Friday, responded in the bottom of the half of the inning. Dustin Burns drilled the first pitch he saw from Mustangs starter Connor Knutson over the left field wall. Then with two outs, Dylan Smith walked and Thornton got plunked leading to Mankoff’s heroics.
“We play aggressively. We try to make people make mistakes and that worked for us,” Humphrey said.
Smith settled down after the third and went the distance, scattering nine hits and striking out nine.
“It was a good day. I got my off-speed stuff over the plate, and they are a great hitting team,” said Smith, who improved to 8-0. “I knew they were a great fastball hitting team, I adjusted, and it worked for me.”
Ralston Valley, which pounded out 22 hits in the first game against Mountain View, had the tying run at first in the sixth inning with Chritz (who was 4-for-5 with two home runs and eight RBIs in the two games) at the plate, but courtesy runner Payton McLachlan was picked off at second by catcher Max Maloney.
THOMAS JEFFERSON 5, RALSTON VALLEY 3
Ralston Valley 002 100 1 – 3 9 1
Thomas Jefferson 004 010 x – 5 4 2
Ralston Valley – Barban 3b 3-0-2-1, Faherty lf 4-0-1-0, Chritz ss 3-0-2-2, Rowe 1b 4-0-1-0, Hayes cf 4-0-2-0, Patten dh 3-0-0-0, Shopnitz c 0-0-0-0, Spirek p 0-0-0-0, Yost 2b 4-1-0-0, Doherty rf 2-1-0-0, Knutson p 1-0-1-0, McLachlan cr 0-1-0-0. Totals 28-3-9-3.
Thomas Jefferson – Smith p 1-2-1-0, Thornton ss 2-1-0-0, Nathan rf 2-1-0-1, Mi. Mankoff lf 3-0-1-3, Jost 2b 2-0-0-0, Ma. Makoff 1b 3-0-1-0, Dillard dh 2-0-0-0, Hearne cf 0-0-0-0, Burns 3b 3-1-1-1, Maloney c 2-0-0-0. Totals 20-5-4-5.
E – Chritz; Smith, Mi. Mankoff. LOB – Ralston Valley 10; Thomas Jefferson 3. DP – Ralston Valley 1; Thomas Jefferson. Caught stealing – McLachlan; Smith. SAC – Barban; Nathan. 2B – Mi. Mankoff, Ma. Mankoff, Smith. HR – Burns, solo in third.
Batteries – Knutson, Spirek (4) and Shopnitz; Smith and Maloney. W – Smith (8-0). L – Knutson (2-1). PB – Shopnitz. HBP – Doherty (by Smith in 3rd); Thornton (by Knutson in 3rd); Knutson (by Smith in 4th). Time – 1:50.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 of jyunt@denverpost.com
