Legend captured the school’s first state championship in any sport Saturday at Aurora Sports Park, defeating Fossil Ridge 9-3 in the Class 5A softball title game in convincing fashion behind a six-run fifth inning and the shutdown pitching of junior pitcher Zoey LeCompte.
After a run in the first inning on senior Hailee Swanson’s RBI single, Legend took control in the fifth.
Juniors Cailey Oldemeyer and Payton Lincavage had RBI singles, followed by senior Alyssa Nunn’s two-run triple and LeCompte’s two-run single that busted the game open at 7-0.
“The whole goal was to take it one pitch at a time, and that’s what we did this afternoon until the fifth and through it,” Legend coach Kristen Shirk said. “We always approached things with an 0-0 mind-set, and it definitely helps that all throughout the year we played the top teams in the state to get us ready for this moment.”
The surge of the Titans (18-8) made for another bitter postseason end for coach Dave Philop’s Sabercats (22-3, Front Range champions).
“We’ve been to state seven times in a row, we’ve been to five final fours, and we’ve won more games than anyone in the state over the last seven years,” Philop said. “We’ve done everything but this, and we’re still trying to get over this hump. But what this team accomplished was incredible.”
Junior Mia Moddelmog’s two-run homer highlighted a three-run Fossil Ridge rally in the fifth to cut the score to 7-3, but Legend snuffed any chances of a comeback with an additional run in the sixth and seventh.
“In that big inning, we were a lot looser,” Shirk said. “Once we got those extra runs, we were able to relax a little bit, and our defense was on today as it was all weekend. We put it all together.”
Shirk said making school history makes the title win — which the rowdy Titans’ student section was out in full force to see — all the more memorable.
“It’s so sweet — all the coaches and teachers always said, ‘Who’s going to get the first one?’ ” Shirk said. “And I had always hoped it would be us.”
In the semifinal games, windy conditions led to a dozen homers between the four teams, with Fossil Ridge’s five dingers and Legend’s three being the difference. But Legacy didn’t go quietly in its 10-3 loss to Legend, and neither did Eaglecrest in a 20-16 setback to Fossil Ridge that saw the Raptors take a 5-1 lead after one, squander it, and then battle back from an 11-run deficit entering the bottom of the seventh.
Despite the losses, it was another marquee year for both coach Dawn Gaffin’s Lightning and coach Yvette Hendrian’s Raptors.
Legacy (20-4) posted the program’s most wins in a season since 2013 behind the leadership and raw power of senior slugger Trisha Cook, and Eaglecrest (22-2, Centennial League champions) made its second straight semifinal behind the pitching of senior Braelyne Crenshaw and the hitting and leadership of senior first baseman Kailey Wilson.
