One final, agonizing plot twist unfolded Saturday in the ultra-competitive, back-and-forth Class 4A Jefferson County League.
With its road paved for a league title after a bizarre week, the No. 3 Green Mountain baseball team fell 4-3 at D’Evelyn and dropped to the league’s No. 3 seed.
The Rams’ loss, coupled with top-ranked Wheat Ridge’s head-scratching 12-1 loss to Elizabeth earlier in the week, made Valor Christian the league champ as the sole team with only one league loss.
“We have to refocus and get back on top where we should be when playoffs start,” Green Mountain outfielder Shay Lynes said. “Us and Wheat Ridge, we both lost really silly games this week.”
D’Evelyn (12-7, 6-4) will miss the cut for the playoffs, so the Jaguars were treating the matchup as their championship game. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Ryan Matheson delivered a two-run double to right-center, and reliever Ricky Swift blanked Green Mountain (16-3, 8-2) in the seventh.
“To end it with a win for our seniors is really great,” said Matheson, a junior. “Especially against such a good team like Green Mountain.”
Swift came on in the sixth and induced Cameron Quick to pop out with the bases loaded to prevent the Rams, who would have won a tiebreaker with Valor Christian, from building on a 3-2 lead. Staked to the lead in the seventh, Swift worked around a single by Lynes and a walk to Taylor Peters before getting Eric Engle to fly out to center to end it.
“It was a pride game for us, with them being 15 minutes away and us wanting to end on a good note,” Swift said. “Coach (Dan Porreco) told us all week that this was our state championship right here.”
The starting pitchers were good, as GM’s Christian Rooney (5 2/3 innings) absorbed the tough loss and D’Evelyn’s Nate Sylvester kept the Jags in the game by working into the sixth.
“It was a last hurrah for them,” Lynes said. “They came out with nothing to lose, and we came out with something to lose.”
Green Mountain 000 120 0 — 3 7 3
D’Evelyn 000 112 x — 4 7 0
Green Mountain — Willis lf 2-1-0-0, Quick cf 3-0-0-0, Lynes rf-p 4-1-3-1, Shetterly 1b 3-0-1-1, Siegele ss 4-1-1-0, Peters 3b 3-0-1-1, Engle c 3-0-1-0, Boettcher dh 3-0-0-0, Halverson 2b 2-0-0-0. Totals 27-3-7-3.
D’Evelyn — Stratman dh 3-1-1-0, Sylvester p-rf 2-0-0-0, Carland ss 2-0-0-0, Clery ss 1-0-1-1, French c 3-0-0-0, Swift 3b-p 3-2-1-0, Phillips 1b 2-0-2-0, Marvel cf-3b 3-1-1-0, Birney lf 2-0-0-1, Skelton rf-cf 2-0-0-0, Matheson ph 1-0-1-2, Dougherty 2b 0-0-0-0. Totals 24-4-7-4.
E — Engle, Halverson, Quick. LOB — Green Mountain 10, D’Evelyn 6. SB — Quick, Stratman. SAC — Birney. CS — Phillips, Birney. 2B — Lynes, Clery, Skelton. 3B — Siegele. Batteries — Rooney, Lynes (6) and Engle; Sylvester, Swift (6) and French. W — Swift (4-0). L — Rooney (5-1). HBP — Quick (by Sylvester), Phillips (by Swift). T — 2:24.
