ARVADA — It was only a month ago that the Ralston Valley Mustangs were wondering whether their softball season might prove to be one colossal disappointment.
All of a sudden, the Mustangs will begin the postseason as one of the hottest teams in Class 5A.
No. 7-ranked Ralston Valley completed the regular season impressively Saturday, routing No. 6 Cherokee Trail 12-0 in five innings. The Mustangs, who opened the season with a difficult schedule that led to a 4-5 start, have won nine of 10 games and seven in a row.
“At the end of the season, you always want to be peaking, and it seems that way for us,” Ralston Valley coach Wendy Davies said. “It’s one of those things where you keep working through the season and hope you are there at the end and know that it paid off.”
Outfielder Denise Anderson paced the Mustangs’ 13-hit attack with two doubles and four RBIs. Ralston Valley senior pitcher Samantha Strauss dominated, firing a one-hitter.
Anderson opened the scoring for the Mustangs (13-6) with a two-run double in the second inning, and Ralston Valley blew the game open with a seven-run third highlighted by a two-run double from Rebecca Fallon.
“We’re learning how to work more as a team and work together,” Strauss said. “We’re really helping each other out, especially in practice. We’re having fun. We’re relaxed. We’re really getting everything to click with defense and offense.”
Cherokee Trail, which has only two seniors in its lineup, dropped to 13-5-1.
“The five losses that we’ve had, we’ve either been outmatched or we’re not playing a whole lot of defense,” Cherokee Trail coach Dick Hormann said. “We’re young, but we’re excited about where we are. We didn’t expect to have this good a season with how young we are. We’re looking forward to the state tournament, mostly for the experience.”
Cherokee Trail 000 00 — 0 1 2
Ralston Valley 027 3x — 12 13 0
Cherokee Trail (ab-r-h-rbi) — Rizzo p/ss 2-0-0-0, Sparks lf 2-0-0-0, Bobian cf/p 2-0-0-0, Higens ss/cf 2-0-1-0, Knabenshue 2b 0-0-0-0, Bailey c 2-0-0-0, Hinton 3b 2-0-0-0, Jackson 1b 2-0-0-0, Ott rf 1-0-0-0. Totals 15-0-1-0.
Ralston Valley — Strauss p 4-0-1-1, McHale cf 3-0-0-0, Towner c 3-2-2-0, Reeves ss 2-2-1-1, Eldredge 3b 2-2-1-0, Archuleta rf 3-2-2-0, Fallon 2b 3-1-1-2, Kramer 1b 3-2-2-2, Anderson lf 3-1-3-4. Totals 26-12-13-10.
E — Knabenshue, Higens. LOB — Cherokee Trail 2, Ralston Valley 5. 2B — Anderson 2, Kramer, Fallon, Towner, Reeves. 3B — Towner. SAC — Knabenshue. HBP — Eldredge. Batteries — Rizzo, Bobian (3) and Bailey; Strauss and Towner. W — Strauss. L — Rizzo.
