抖阴ap

One program captured its first state championship and one cemented its dynasty in lower-classification softball state tournament action Saturday at Aurora Sports Park as聽Mountain View topped Pueblo Central 7-3 to win the 4A title and Strasburg defeated Brush 10-2 to win the 3A title.

The Mountain Lions (22-3-1) won their first title using an early barrage of runs, as well as a gutsy complete game聽 from freshman pitcher聽Bailey Carlson, to defeat the Wildcats (20-5), who were making their second championship game appearance.

In the opening inning, junior third baseman聽Raleigh Basart and senior outfielder Jaycee Schroeder recorded RBI singles to give Mountain View a 2-0 lead. Then in the second, a Wildcats error led to three unearned runs in the frame, including two RBIs by senior catcher聽Kaley Barker to extend the lead to 5-0.

More RBI hits by Barker (in the fourth) and Basart (the seventh) made it a comfortable win for the Mountain Lions, who ended up scoring all of their runs with two outs.

“We knew once we started to string the hits together, no one was going to stop us,” said Barker. “We’re a great hitting team, and we knew this was this senior classes’ last shot, so we were intent on making the most of it.”

Carlson, who took a no-hitter into the fourth before it was broken up by an infield single, was able to work out of minor jams with the help of tight defense in the second half of a ballgame where the Mountain Lions — who had fallen short in the semifinals the previous two seasons — were determined to not let a championship opportunity slip through their grasp.

“I think these girls, the ones who have been at state the past few years, were more comfortable coming into today,” Mountain View coach聽Randy Felton said. “Before, it was a mind-set of, ‘Let’s get to Saturday,’ and this year they wanted a little bit more.”

In the 3A championship, Strasburg beat Brush in a showdown between District 3 rivals that split two games during the regular season, giving the Indians their fourth state title since 2012.

A passed ball gave the聽Beetdiggers (20-4) a 1-0 advantage in the bottom of the first, but then Strasburg retaliated with two runs in the fourth — one a solo homer by senior third baseman Dakota Stoman and another after an infield error — to give the Indians a 2-1 lead heading into the fifth.

“They’ve fought together, they’ve stuck together, and even when we went down in the first inning, there was never a thought of giving up,” said 10th-year coach聽coach聽Michelle Woodard. “And with only two seniors, this was a great experience that’s going to help us in the future.”

Strasburg (20-4) broke the game open in the sixth, as the Indians used an array of clutch hits with runners in scoring position to plate seven runs and to extend its advantage to 9-1 while junior聽Alexis Rayburn kept the聽Beetdiggers at bay from the circle.

“We were patient at the plate,”聽Woodard said. “We waited for the one pitch we needed to hit — Hailey (Unrein) is a good pitcher, but we just wanted to make her pitch a lot and then take of an opportunity when we got one.”

In the 4A semifinal games, Pueblo Central outlasted Silver Creek 7-6 to end a stellar campaign for the Raptors (18-5-1), who ousted undefeated and three-time defending champion Valor Christian in the quarterfinals. And Mullen, searching for its fourth state championship and first since 2001, saw its season end in a 7-4 loss to Mountain View in a game where the Mustangs (16-9) couldn’t summon the bat power that allowed them to rack up 47 runs in the previous four playoff games.

In the 3A semifinal games, Brush ran past Faith Christian 14-4 in a run-rule affair where the Eagles (16-7) were unable to suppress the Beetdiggers’ offense. And Eaton, despite a five-run third inning that temporarily gave the Reds (19-4) a one-run lead, was unable to hold off Strasburg as they fell 10-9 to come up just short of a second title game showing in the past three seasons.