HIGHLANDS RANCH — Even with weather delays, Will Dixon and Mountain Vista teammates didn’t forget when they finally were able to play Tuesday.
“Everybody thought we were the underdog,” the senior right-hander said. “Everyone thought (Fairview) was going to take (the district) and I would be lying if I said that didn’t fuel our fire.
“This team loves that. We really love that.”
The host Golden Eagles quickly erased a two-run deficit and took down the Knights 4-2 to win their Class 5A district and advance to this weekend’s double-elimination rounds. Mountain Vista, a No. 7 seed, is 16-5. Fairview, which had been only a 10th seed despite winning the Front Range League, ended 17-4.
“It’s a shame, but what are you going to do?” Mountain Vista coach Ron Quintana said of various seeding questions that arose last week. “It was one of those things, Fairview jumping into our district and I wasn’t happy about it.
“(But) I’m not surprised, I had confidence in our guys. We had a stretch where we had some snow, playing a lot of games in a row and not playing good baseball.”
But the Golden Eagles made some adjustments, much like they did Tuesday. After falling behind in the second inning, they plated three unearned runs by taking advantage of two Fairview errors. Freshman Zach Paschke and sophomore John Krysa drove home runs.
Dixon (6-2) took it from there — he allowed only one hit after the second and the Golden Eagles were flawless in the field. And they scratched out another run in the fifth on a Dixon RBI after Fairview starter Ryan Madden took a screaming line drive on his right eye off the bat of Marc Mumper.
“You never want to see that,” Dixon said.
Madden, after a few minutes, walked off the field with a gash around the eye. He stayed in the dugout for a while, then left for stitches. He also texted teammates late in the game, said coach Rick Harig, and there may be a concussion, but Madden is expected to be fine.
“Give them credit,” Harig said of the Golden Eagles. “We had a little bout of defensive issues and they capitalized. But that’s baseball.”
Earlier in the day, Mountain Vista and Fairview had downed Brighton and Montbello, respectively, in the opening round.
