Class 5A baseball literally walked off into its final day.
With a single to the left-field wall by Brandon Formby and a sacrifice fly by Matt Givin, the Continental League’s Mountain Vista and Rock Canyon, respectively, earned one-run victories Tuesday for a chance to meet Chatfield in Wednesday’s championship game. They will have a rematch at 1 p.m. for the right to face Chatfield immediately after.
Formby, a senior, said he passed on a take sign to rip a liner that capped a 5-4 decision of Grandview in eight innings.
“It was too good to take for me,” Formby said. “He threw it up and in, where I like it, and I was just trying to get it into the air.”
The Golden Eagles (20-6) gave up two earlier leads but tied it in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Will Dixon. They loaded the bases for Formby on a single by Cooper Shearon, a couple of walks and a sacrifice.
“My heart can’t take much more of this,” Mountain Vista coach Ron Quintana said.
Formby had two hits and drove in a run. Starting pitcher Marc Mumper also walked twice, had a sacrifice fly and doubled for two RBIs.
“It’s a crazy game,” Mumper said.
Grandview finished 15-11 as longtime coach Dean Adams retired.
“They played awful hard for me,” Adams said of his players.
Rock Canyon 7, Chatfield 6. In the second game, there were a combined seven errors, runners thrown out on the bases, nine walks and five hit batsmen in a little bit of everything as Rock Canyon nipped Chatfield.
Givin, a sophomore, actually had two sacrifice flies as the Jaguars (21-4) had only five hits and made five errors but gave Chatfield 14-11) its first Championship Series loss.
“It would have been great to get a base hit, but the job was to put it in the outfield and get the run home,” Givin said.
The Jags, behind pitcher Bryce Dietz, led 1-0 and 4-0 before the Chargers came alive behind Kyle Winkler. All three Chatfield pichers gave up runs, but knowing their appearance in Wednesday’s final was assured helped ease the sting.
“They’re (angry), and that’s OK,” coach Matt Johnson said.
Josh White tripled and had three RBIs for the Jags. Winkler doubeld twice and drove home a run.
Givin on playing on the season’s final day: “It’s amazing, and I’m excited.”
