BROOMFIELD — There’s nothing like getting back on the field after a heart-wrenching loss. The Faith Christian baseball team was thankful its wait was only 20 minutes.
After dramatically losing the opening game of a doubleheader at No. 4 Holy Family 7-6 — it marked the No. 2 Eagles’ first defeat of the season — Faith Christian roared back to win the second game of the Class 3A Metro League twin bill 10-2 behind a two-hitter by pitcher Danny Graves.
“They showed a lot of character and a lot of heart after that first one to play hard, play well and get a win,” Eagles coach Danny Bote said.
Faith Christian (9-1, 7-1) appeared en route to a convincing win in the opener when taking a 5-1 lead to the bottom of the sixth. But the Tigers (9-3, 6-2) got a two-run single from Jarred DeHerrera and an RBI groundout from Devlin Granberg to cut it to 5-4.
Faith led 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh and was one out shy of a win, but Tom Erb’s routine groundball to second was misplayed, allowing the tying and winning runs to score. It made a winner of Tigers starting pitcher Ryan Silva, who persevered despite giving up 13 hits.
“You get one win against a team of that quality, it just reinforces we have the talent here,” said Holy Family coach Marc Cowell of his defending champion squad. “We just have to do it on a more consistent basis, because we’ll play great one game and not so great the next.”
Exhibit A was Saturday, when the Tigers couldn’t parlay their momentum into a sweep. Faith Christian’s Colby Smith, who endured a tough no-decision on the mound in the opener, went 3-for-3 with a two-run home run and two-run double on a day when the wind consistently blew in from left field.
“We responded how we should have,” Smith said.
Faith Christian’s David Bote swiped five bases in the two games.
