ARVADA — Ben Yokley was warming up for his most important start of the season and already he felt as though he might be in trouble.
The senior right-hander from Ralston Valley High School felt something was amiss with his throwing motion before he took the mound against Bear Creek with the Class 5A Jeffco League crown on the line.
Yet Yokley was able to make a slight adjustment in the bullpen, and then he promptly mowed down the Bears to deliver a 2-1, championship-clinching Mustangs victory.
“I felt like I changed my arm motion a little bit in this game, but it worked,” Yokley said. “In the bullpen, my throwing motion just didn’t feel right. So I was feeling around, trying to find it, and I found it in about the second inning, and from there on out it was smooth sailing.”
Yokley struck out four of the first five batters he faced, but he encountered his only significant trouble when the Bears loaded the bases with three consecutive two-out singles in the second inning. Yet Yokley escaped the jam, and then he retired 12 of the 13 hitters he faced over the next four innings.
Staked to a 2-0 lead on RBI hits by Jake Sawaya and Tanner Roth in the third, Yokley cruised until a walk and a single by Bear Creek in the seventh gave the Bears a fighting chance.
However, Yokley once again doused the threat, inducing consecutive groundballs that clinched the conference crown for the eighth-ranked Mustangs (14-5 overall, 7-1 league).
Yokley finished the complete-game five-hitter with eight strikouts and only one walk.
“Bear Creek has got a heck of a club, and their left-hander (Ryan Reno) was tough. He kept us off-balance,” Ralston Valley coach Shane Freehling said. “He was tough. But our guy was even better, a senior coming through big in a game that really matters. At times, he was unhittable.”
Bear Creek 000 000 1 — 1 5 1
Ralston Valley 002 000 x — 2 5 0
Bear Creek (ab-r-h-rbi) — Reno p 3-0-0-0, Burns cf 3-0-0-0, Morris 3b 3-0-0-0, Baumer 1b 3-0-1-0, Dilts 2b 3-0-0-0, Fouts lf 2-1-1-0, Harris c 3-0-2-0, Fleck rf 3-0-1-1, Patton 3-0-0-0. Totals 26-1-5-1.
Ralston Valley — Coleman ss 2-0-0-0, Sawaya 2b 2-1-2-1, Roth lf 2-0-1-1, McCasky 1b 2-0-0-0, Yokley p 2-0-0-0, Russell ph 1-0-0-0, Gibbs c 3-0-1-0, Griebling rf 2-0-0-0, Wiemers cf 3-0-0-0, DiLoreto 3b 2-1-1-0. Totals 21-2-5-2.
E — Fouts. LOB — Bear Creek 5, Ralston Valley 7. 2B — Roth. CS — Griebling. SAC — Coleman, Wiemers. Batteries — Reno and Harris; Yokley and Gibbs.
W — Yokley (4-1). L — Reno (3-2).
