ARVADA — For Holy Family pitcher Rachel Boothe, the number 13 carried no ominous overtones. Faith Christian, on the other hand, might be experiencing a bit of triskaidekaphobia.
Boothe did her best Aaron Cook impersonation by coaxing 13 groundball outs, the Tigers’ offense produced singles at the rate of and Holy Family again claimed the Class 3A Metro League crown with a convincing 4-1 win Friday at Lutz Field.
Like the Rockies’ sinker-baller, Boothe is most effective when her drop ball is forcing the opposition into a bevy of groundballs. She induced eight of the first nine batters into groundouts and didn’t allow a hit until the fifth as the Tigers (13-5, 9-0) won their ninth consecutive league title and remained unbeaten in league play for the sixth straight season.
“She’s a drop-ball pitcher, and that’s what she throws,” Holy Family coach Glen Ramos said. “We were looking for her to keep the ball down in the zone and them to pound it into the ground. We have a lot of confidence in our defense right now.”
While the Holy Family defense played error-free, Amy Baumberger, Rachel Wild and Caitlyn Krenz (two hits apiece) paced an opportunistic offense that drove numerous singles back up the middle against Eagles starter Taylor Johnson. Wild and Baumberger added key triples for the Tigers, who took command in the second on RBI singles by Moriah Turney and Krenz.
Boothe, meanwhile, cruised unscathed until Morgan Harris laced a clean single with one out in the fifth. Faith Christian (14-3, 7-1) got on the board with an RBI single by Brandi Roundtree in the sixth, but Boothe induced a 1-2-3 double play to escape with the 4-1 lead intact.
“It’s just hitting spots,” Boothe said. “That’s what I did.”
Faith Christian believes everything will be OK.
“This team doesn’t get down,” Roundtree said. “We just rebuild and trust each other. I think we’ll play them again.”
