BROOMFIELD — Brandon Bailey’s Broomfield teammates cracked a smile Thursday as Bailey sprinted from second base to third.
“Slow down,” one of them encouraged.
Bailey had just ripped an opposite-field, three-run home run but hadn’t seen it leave the park. The blast, which broke a scoreless tie and sent the Eagles to a 13-3 victory over visiting Longmont in a Class 4A Northern League game, ignited a three-homer inning in Broomfield’s seventh straight win.
“I was thinking triple all the way,” said Bailey, whose first-base coach encouraged him to hustle while the ball was still airborne. “When I stopped at third, coach (Garren) Estes said it went over. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s kind of embarrassing.’ “
Bailey, the No. 9 hitter, shouldn’t have been too red-faced, considering the homer served as a catalyst for the Eagles (10-5, 9-2). Center fielder Dan Geubelle followed with the first of his two homers — he added a grand slam in the third — and Nick Leonard capped the seven-run second with a three-run bomb.
“We’ve got big hitters all around,” Geubelle said. “When people are hitting, it gets contagious. It happened today.”
Longmont (8-8, 7-4) entered the day a game back in a four-pronged league race, but watched as pitcher Josh Crist absorbed his first loss of the season in five decisions. The good news for the Trojans is they get another crack at Broomfield on Saturday in Longmont.
“Well, maybe that’s good, unless they swing it like they did today,” Longmont coach Tom Fobes said. “We left some balls up and those were driven out of the park. But even our good pitches, they put them in play and got a lot of hits out of them.”
Broomfield, which also got multihit performances from Andy McClaskey, Parker Oliver and Ben Martinez, was the 4A runner-up last season but started the spring 3-5. Now, the Eagles are rolling as they battle Silver Creek and Thompson Valley for the league’s top seed.
“We’re just crushing the ball; it’s like seeing a beach ball,” Bailey said. “We’re finally figuring it out.”
Longmont 000 30 — 3 8 1
Broomfield 076 0x — 13 13 0
Longmont (ab-r-h-rbi) – Cinea cf 3-0-1-0, Magee ss 3-0-0-0, Pickett lf 2-1-1-0, Crist p-1b 3-0-1-0, Hargash c 3-0-1-0, Mau 1b-rf 2-1-0-0, Moroyoqui 3b 2-1-2-0, Phillips 2b 1-0-1-2, Hart rf 1-0-0-0, Charles p 1-0-1-0. Totals 21-3-8-2.
Broomfield – Geubelle cf 3-2-2-5, McClaskey 2b 4-2-2-0, Lockwood 3b 2-2-1-1, Leonard 1b 2-1-1-3, Hammett p 2-0-1-1, Underberg ss 3-1-1-0, Oliver rf 3-2-2-0, Martinez c 3-0-2-0, Arensdorf cr 0-1-0-0, Bailey dh 1-2-1-3, Fukushima lf 0-0-0-0. Totals 23-13-13-13.
E — Phillips. DP — Broomfield 1. LOB — Longmont 6, Broomfield 4. 2B — Martinez 2, Oliver. 3B — Lockwood. HR — Geubelle 2 (solo in second, grand slam in third); Bailey (two on in second); Leonard (two on in second). CS — Pickett, Hammett.
Batteries — Crist, Charles (3) and Hargash; Hammett and Martinez. W — Hammett (2-0). L — Crist (4-1). HBP — Geubelle (by Charles). T — 1:26.
