LOVELAND — Brandon Baeckel was simply doing his job.
The ace of the Mountain View staff watched his team suffer its first loss on Thursday at Niwot from third base, knowing he would have his shot against the Cougars on Saturday.
The study session paid off, and Baeckel was dominant at Greg Brock Field, pitching a complete-game five-hitter for the Mountain Lions, who exacted some revenge with a 2-1 victory.
“I get out on that bump and I’m kind of in a zone and I get tunnel vision,” said the senior, who along with his teammates sported green lids for the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.
“I’ve had trouble in the past in the first inning, so I decided to come out and set the tone. My arm felt great.”
Both teams are now 3-1 in the 4A Northern League.
Niwot nabbed the early lead on Baeckel in the third inning. Danny Caruso led off the inning with a walk and eventually scored on Adam Baumann’s throwing error that would have been the third out.
Mountain View, which dropped a 4-2 decision to the Cougars on Thursday, responded with a two-out rally in the fifth. Back-to-back triples off Niwot starter Jake Sarosi — who was cruising — by nine-hole hitter Brady Starck and leadoff man Kollin Evens to deep center field tied the game. Thomas McDaniel knocked in the go-ahead run with an infield single.
“Brady has struggled and that’s why he’s in the nine-hole, but for him to square a ball up and hit a ball hard, we really needed that in that situation,” Mountain View coach Brian Smela said.
Baeckel did the rest. He got out of a jam with a convenient double play in the sixth and fanned Bryan Hawthorne to end the game with eight strikeouts.
“It was a pitchers’ game today, for sure,” Niwot coach Craig McBride said. “We didn’t do some little things right, and we are going to go back to work on those things.”
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
