Conner Nantkes and his Cherokee Trail teammates won’t forget it. They beat Arapahoe in a close game last month but weren’t happy with the way they played. They stood 3-3. The next day, Nantkes said, they attended a Rockies game, watched Nolan Arenado hit two home runs and Trevor Story triple twice off the new high fences at Coors Field.
“We set that as a standard,” Nantkes said.
They have been adhering to it. The Cougars went on to tie for the Centennial League baseball title and now are 19-4 after winning 11 games in a row, including two in the Class 5A championship series Friday at All-City Field. The bigger one was a 7-0 decision of Rocky Mountain in which Nantkes, a junior left-hander, tossed a two-hitter.
Cherokee Trail will play a 3 p.m. winner’s bracket game Saturday against rival Cherry Creek. The winner will enter the season’s final weekend undefeated and ensured a berth in the title game.
Coach Allan Dyer has been with the Cherokee Trail program since its inception in the late 1990s. Even he has been amazed by what has transpired, including the slow start, having his team’s out-of-state trip canceled because of a blizzard, then forced to play Mountain Vista three times to make up for it and being seeded a low 13th in districts despite winning Colorado’s best league.
“Oh, it was a grind early with us,” Dyer said. “And, heck, everything that could go wrong went wrong. … But this is a great group, has great chemistry, is very selfless and is feeling it right now.”
After beating Dakota Ridge 7-2, the Cougars were patient while downing the Lobos (16-7). A suicide squeeze turned into a three-run error — one of four committed by the Lobos — in the fourth inning. The Cougars plated three more in the fifth, and Nantkes remained in command. When asked what was working, he said: “Everything when my defense played like it did.”
Both safeties permitted by Nantkes, who had three of his team’s nine hits, were to losing pitcher John Sorenson. Lobos coach Scott Bullock offered no excuses, crediting the Cougars’ execution.
It’s a roll that Cherokee Trail hopes continues. “We’re not where we want to be, but we’re on the right path,” Nantkes said.
