As if the Rocky Mountain baseball team’s chances for a three-peat weren’t favorable enough entering Friday, the Lobos now have the deck supremely stacked in their favor.
The Lobos didn’t deploy either of their money pitchers Friday in a 15-4 win against Rampart at All-City Field, meaning their choices to lock down another Class 5A title today are as follows:
• Senior Bryan Peters, who is 21-0 in his prep career and 7-0 this season.
• Junior Marco Gonzales, who owns the past two title-clinching wins.
Oh, and did we mention that the Lobos have to be defeated twice by Mountain Vista? Rocky Mountain is 4-0 in the double-elimination tournament, while Mountain Vista is 3-1 — the one loss a 15-5 decision to Rocky. That means, of course, that if either Peters or Gonzales is defeated, the other will have an opportunity to nail it down.
So coach Scott Bullock, any inkling on who you’ll deploy in the first game? “We haven’t even thought about it,” Bullock said. “The decision was who we were going to pitch this game.”
Rocky Mountain used four pitchers against the Rams (22-3), who entered as a sizable underdog despite being the tournament’s top seed. At first, it appeared the philosophy might backfire, when Rampart’s Austin Kaiser launched a three-run home run in the top of the first, but Rocky Mountain countered with four in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a three-run blast by Chris Roglen.
The Lobos (21-4) never stopped hitting until Jake Stewart’s three-run, opposite-field blast in the sixth invoked the 10-run rule.
“At the plate, they are who everybody says they are,” Rampart coach Adam Strah said. “And if they can come with even better pitching than they had today, they’re going to be tough to beat.”
Reliever Nick McLimans was the most effective of Rocky’s staff and earned his first win of the season after striking out six in three scoreless innings. Rocky’s 3-4-5 hitters (Stewart, Gonzales and Roglen), meanwhile, combined for 10 RBIs.
Rampart 301 000 — 4 8 4
Rocky Mountain 402 414 — 15 13 3
Rampart — Schicktanz 3b 4-0-0-0, Looney c 3-1-1-0, Ortega lf 4-1-2-0, Kaiser cf 2-1-1-3, Forrest p-rf 3-0-2-0, Melander 1b 3-1-1-0, Karlik ss 2-0-1-1, Whitbeck rf-p 2-0-0-0, Koehler 2b 3-0-0-0. Totals 26-4-8-4.Rocky Mountain — White 2b 3-3-2-1, Peters 3b 3-2-1-1, Stewart cf 4-3-2-4, Gonzales lf 3-1-2-3, Roglen rf 2-2-1-3, Trumper ss 4-0-1-0, Lopez 1b 4-0-1-0, Matz c 2-0-1-0, Leidholt cr 0-0-0-0, Schrader c 2-0-1-0, Felton cr 0-1-0-0, Seidel dh 2-3-1-0. Totals 29-15-13-13.E — Matz, Lopez, Looney, Karlik, Kaiser, Schicktanz. LOB — Rampart 8, Rocky Mountain 6. 2B — Melander, White 2, Schrader, Seidel. HR — Kaiser, two on in first; Roglen, two on in first; Stewart, two on in sixth. SB — Forrest, Leidholt, Gonzales, Seidel. SF — Gonzales, Peters. HBP — Peters, Seidel.
Batteries — Forrest, Watkins (4), Whitbeck (4) and Looney; Chuvala, Hersch (1), O’Grady (3), McLimans (4) and Matz, Schrader (4). W — McLimans (1-1). L — Forrest (9-1). PB — Looney.
Mountain Vista 6, Cherry Creek 2
The understudy trumped the master.
Mountain Vista baseball coach Mark Goldsberry learned his craft under the tutelage of Cherry Creek skipper Marc Johnson from 1990-2007, and Friday, the protege’s Golden Eagles upended Johnson’s Bruins in the Class 5A Championship Series at All-City Field.
The Mountain Vista win, keyed by another dominating performance on the mound by senior Eric Anderson, sends the Golden Eagles to today’s final — they’ll have to defeat Rocky Mountain twice today to capture the title — and eliminates Creek (19-6).
“I’m so happy for our kids, but it’s still a weird feeling to be in the other dugout,” said Goldsberry, in his second season at Vista. “I can’t tell you how much respect I have for Marc over there, but this was our day.”
Goldsberry was admittedly a bit emotional, as were his players — but for another reason. The Golden Eagles were thumped 15-0 by Cherry Creek on March 12 and wanted to make amends.
“They embarrassed us early, and they’d been chirping a little bit, and that motivated us to come out and take it to them,” said Anderson, who improved to 9-0 by checking the Bruins on three hits while striking out nine.
Mountain Vista (20-5) took a 2-1 lead in the second on a two-run single by Zac Hartog, then added three more runs in the third, including Robert Kissner’s two-run homer.
Johnson said the Eagles outhit, outpitched and outfielded his squad. T.J. Shantz drove in both runs for Creek.
Mountain Vista 023 100 0 — 6 8 1
Cherry Creek 100 100 0 — 2 3 1
Mountain Vista — Anderson p 4-0-0-0, Newman 2b 4-1-2-1, Kissner cf 3-1-1-2, Cross 3b 4-0-1-0, Caggiano c 4-2-2-0, Clouthier ss 3-0-1-1, Ottoson lf 2-1-0-0, Hartog 1b 3-0-1-2, Mallinger dh 3-1-0-0, Morales rf 0-0-0-0. Totals 30-6-8-6.Cherry Creek — G. McCabe cf 3-1-1-0, Satherlie 2b 3-0-0-0, Shantz 3b 2-1-1-2, Mielnicki 1b 3-0-0-0, Keller lf 3-0-0-0, McCabe rf 2-0-1-0, Shoutta dh 2-0-0-0, Leikam c 2-0-0-0, Price ss 2-0-0-0. Totals 22-2-3-2.E — Satherlie, Caggiano. DP — Mountain Vista 1. LOB — Mountain Vista 5, Cherry Creek 0. 2B — Newman, Cross, Caggiano, Clouthier, G. McCabe, C. McCabe. HR — Kissner, one on in third; Shantz, solo in fourth. SB — Kissner.
Batteries — Anderson and Caggiano; Nava, Blackford (5) and Leikam. W — Anderson (9-0). L — Nava (10-2). WP — Nava, Blackford. T — 1:50.
