ARVADA — The plan was to give Erica Haugum one of those unintentional intentional walks, essentially to pitch around Arvada West’s slugging cleanup hitter.
When the pitch drifted into Haugum’s hitting zone, the tide drastically turned Saturday in the Wildcats’ 9-8 home victory against No. 5 Pomona in a Class 5A Jefferson County League showdown.
The senior drilled the ball to center field for an inside-the-park homer — Pomona center fielder Allie Martinez briefly slipped after the rocket sailed over her head — to give Arvada West a 4-3 lead in the third. The Wildcats pushed the lead to 9-3 before staving off a Panthers’ comeback attempt.
“We came out with a lot of fire because we’ve been wanting to kill Pomona for awhile,” Haugum said with a laugh that suggested the rivalry is good-natured. “Hopefully we can pull through in a lot of games like this.”
Pomona (8-4-2, 3-2) trailed 9-6 entering the seventh but cut it to 9-8 on a two-out, two-RBI double by Martinez. Then Arvada West shortstop Susie Oury snared Katie Deaguero’s line drive to end it.
“I thought she got just enough of it to fall in,” Pomona coach Jim Biddle said. “That ties it up and we’re in good shape, but Susie made a great play.”
What wasn’t so great, in Biddle’s eyes, was allowing Haugum to change a game the Panthers seemingly controlled after leading 3-0 in the first.
“She was supposed to walk. We weren’t pitching to her with a base open,” Biddle said. “We were supposed to go outside, outside to see if she’d chase, then if it got to 2-0 just intentionally walk her.”
After Haugum’s blast gave A-West (8-5, 4-0) the lead, the Wildcats chased Panthers starter Kelsey Kimminau in a five-run fourth that included a two-run double by winning pitcher Mariah Trujillo.
“We’re a lot more confident now that we beat our rivals,” Haugum said. “We feel like we can take on the world now.”
Pomona 300 030 2 — 8 12 2
Arvada West 202 500 x — 9 10 3
Pomona (ab-r-h-rbi) – Deaguero 2b 4-0-1-0, Gallegos rf 4-1-1-0, Dittmer 3b 4-1-2-0, Kimminau p 4-1-2-0, Corning cr 0-3-0-0, Cochran dh-p 3-0-1-2, Justice 1b 3-2-0-0, Martinez cf 4-0-2-3, Pennington c 4-0-1-2, Thrash cr 0-0-0-0, Pierce 2b 4-0-2-0. Totals 34-8-12-7.
Arvada West – Carter 2b 3-2-3-1, Oury ss 4-2-2-1, McGinn 3b 4-0-0-0, Haugum c 2-1-2-3, Reeves cf 3-0-0-0, Holtz rf 4-1-1-0, Hood dh 1-0-0-0, Sanville pr 0-1-0-0, Bockhold 1b 2-0-0-0, Hendrickson lf 2-1-0-0, Trujillo p 3-1-2-2. Totals 28-9-10-7.
E – Pierce, Dittmer, Haugum, Carter, Oury. DP – Arvada West 1. LOB – Arvada West 7, Pomona 8. 2B – Kimminau, Martinez, Carter, Trujillo. 3B – Oury. HR – Haugum. SB – Corning, Cochran. SAC – Reeves, Hendrickson. HBP – Cochran (by Trujillo), Hood (by Kimminau).
Batteries – Kimminau, Cochran (4) and Pennington; Trujillo and Haugum. W – Trujillo (7-4). L – Kimminau (7-3). T – 2:10.
