GREELEY — The Eaton Reds have long been the measuring stick for Class 3A baseball, so it should come as no shock that coach Jim Danley’s crew did what it did Friday afternoon at Butch Butler Field.
Eaton (20-3) breezed through the first two games of the 3A double-elimination tournament, knocking off Patriot League rival Roosevelt 3-0 in the first game and then planting an 11-3 loss on top-seeded Faith Christian in the nightcap to assure a spot in the final four next week.
“That’s the good news,” Danley said. “We got another week to get Kyle’s rhythm back.”
The Kyle whom Danley referred to is senior ace Kyle Ottoson, who, despite giving up just two hits to the potent Eagles lineup, walked eight batters in his complete game.
“We are right where we want to be, and if we can get a win (Saturday), then we are sitting right where we’ve wanted to be the whole season,” said Ottoson, who struck out 12 in improving his season record to 7-1. “I couldn’t throw strikes, I was just wild, wild, wild. I just had to fight through it and find a groove.”
The Reds will play another Patriot League foe, coach Bob Bote’s Erie Tigers, on Saturday for the right to be the only unbeaten team going to next week. Erie won the regular-season matchup 3-2.
The Eaton hitters established the tone early against Faith’s Jobi Wall, who threw a perfect game against Coal Ridge his last time on the hill. Wall gave up two runs in the first inning on Eaton shortstop Bo McLavey’s triple that brought in Logan Hall and Tyler Wallace.
“They really get up for us, especially after we beat them a couple of times last year,” said Faith Christian coach Gino Carbajal, whose team fell to 20-3 and will play the winner between Lamar and Manitou Springs in an elimination game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. “I don’t think Jobi pitched all that bad. He missed some spots, but they were really focused and they did a good job.”
The Reds tacked on six runs during the next two innings, and it was another triple, Hall this time, that did the big damage in the bottom of the third.
“I liked the way we swung the bats,” Danley said. “McLavey’s rocket to right-center kind of got us going in the first, and then we had some timely hitting after that.”
Hall, Wallace and freshman Seth Jackson had two hits each for Eaton against Wall. In the first game, Ottoson and Sterling Monfort each had multiple hits for the Reds.
Erie (17-5) advanced to play Eaton with a 12-1 win over Manitou Springs and then a 8-3 win over Brush.
Faith Christian 002 000 1 — 3 2 2
Eaton 243 101 x — 11 11 1
Faith Christian — Henry cf 3-1-1-0, Thompson 1b 1-0-0-1, S. Carbajal c 2-0-0-1, Lepore cr 0-0-0-0, Wall p 3-0-0-0, Ja. Torres dh 2-0-0-0, Cleary ss 0-0-0-0, Tycksen lf 1-0-0-0, McBeth rf 3-0-1-0, M. Carbajal 2b 2-1-0-0, Jo. Torres 3b 2-1-0-0. Totals 19-3-2-2.Eaton — Geisick rf 3-2-1-1, Hall cf 3-2-2-3, Wallace 3b 3-2-2-1, McLavey ss 4-0-1-2, Ottoson p 4-0-1-0, Smith cr 0-1-0-0, Jackson 2b 3-2-2-1, Pickar c 1-0-1-0, Estreich cr 0-2-0-0, Monfort 1b 4-0-0-1, Ruff lf 4-0-1-0. Totals 30-11-11-8-9.E — Jo. Torres, Cleary; Geisick. LOB — Faith Christian 6, Eaton 7. DP — Eaton. Caught stealing — Tycksen. SAC — S. Carbajal, Thompson.
2B — Ottoson, Jackson. 3B — McLavey, Hall.
Batteries — Wall and S. Carbajal; Ottoson and Pickar. W — Ottoson (6-1). L — Wall (8-1). WP — Wall 2; Ottoson. PB — S. Carbajal. HBP — Tycksen (by Ottoson in second); Wallace (by Wall in third). T — 1:56.
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
