When you win as frequently as the Eaton baseball team does, not every victory is miraculous, and not every victory is dominant.
The Reds and their legions of fans might never experience a victory that is as miraculously nondominant as the one they experienced Saturday at Butch Butler Field.
Top-seeded Eaton capped a second consecutive undefeated season with a 6-5 win against third-seeded rival University in the finals of the Class 3A state championships.
The fact the Reds won a state title is hardly a surprise. They have now won four state championships in a row.
The fact Eaton defeated the highly competitive Bulldogs also isn’t breaking new ground. The Reds have now defeated University in the title game the past three seasons.
But the manner in which Eaton won the championship sets Saturday’s game apart from the vast majority of the Reds’ previous 68 games, which have all been part of a state-record 69-game win streak.
Eaton trailed from the very first inning until the final five pitches.
“We just never give up — never have, never will,” Reds sophomore right fielder Liam Whalen said. “You just need to have that mentality. We just hold each other accountable. In the dugout, we talk to each other, tell everybody whatap going on, what they’re doing wrong and what we need to do to make it better and fix the problem.”
With its unflappable mentality, Eaton finished its season at 28-0. This is the second time in the Reds’ illustrious baseball history that Eaton has won a fourth consecutive 3A title, with the first instance taking place 20 years ago (2004).
University completed its season at 24-6, finishing as the state runner-up for the third consecutive season after making its fifth title-game appearance in the past six seasons.
The Reds chipped away at an early 5-2 deficit and trailed just 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
With one out, Eaton junior Cash Rinker lined a single to left field.
One at-bat later, Whalen, batting in the nine-hole, blasted a triple to right field to score sophomore pinch runner Andrew Loyd and tie the game.
On the next at-bat, senior Lucas Stone’s seeing-eye single found its way millimeters beyond the reach of Bulldogs senior shortstop Coel Croissant into the left-field grass.
Whalen scored from third base, sending the Reds’ fans into a frenzy and placing the University faithful in a state of utter disbelief.
“These are the moments I’ve lived for since I was a little kid,” Stone said. “I’m just so grateful I got the opportunity to do that this year, and I’m just super happy that my guys got to be a part of it, as well. Itap not just my win, itap not my walk-off. I did it with them.”
For years, the Bulldogs and Reds have engaged in perhaps as competitive of a technically lopsided rivalry as one might ever witness in organized sports.
Eaton has now defeated University 12 consecutive times, dating back to the 2021 season.
Many of those victories have played out much like Saturday’s championship nail-biter. Perhaps none quite matched the drama and all-out shock value of the Reds’ title-game comeback this time around.
The Bulldogs scored two runs in the first inning, one in the second and two more in the third. But each of those innings had the potential to yield even more offense for University.
The Bulldogs put their first three batters on base in each of those three innings. They loaded the bases with no outs in the second and third, but their momentum was quickly stifled by Eaton double plays each time.
Had the Bulldogs managed to squeeze out another run or two in either, or both, of those innings, they may have created enough cushion to force a second title game, with the winner taking all, Saturday afternoon.
Eaton came into the finals without a loss in the double-elimination tournament, meaning University would have had to win twice Saturday to wrestle the championship away from the Reds.
“With that (Eaton) team over there and the arms they have, you take the (runs) as you get them,” Bulldogs coach Casey Miller said. “We definitely left some out there. We needed to scratch across some more runs. Thatap the one thing looking back: four straight zeroes (in innings 4-7). You got to tack on when you can.”
It may have been more than mere coincidence University’s offense dried up after the third inning.
The Bulldogs appeared well prepared for the Reds’ ace, University of Oklahoma-bound senior Mitch Haythorn, one of the top pitching talents in the state.
They were far less familiar with Haythorn’s reliever, sophomore Gunnar Garrison, who they were seeing for the first time.
“He was great,” Eaton coach Todd Hernandez said of Garrison. “We wanted to do everything we could to win the first game and not play for the second game. … It kind of went according to plan, as far as the pitching rotation goes but not necessarily the way we wanted it to go with the score early.”
Garrison allowed a pair of runs right after he stepped on the mound in the top of the third with bases loaded.
He didn’t allow another run after that. In all, he allowed one hit, while striking out two and walking two in five innings pitched.
Had they not rallied late, the Reds still would have been well-armed for a second championship game.
Thanks to Gunnar Garrison’s gritty relief outing, Eaton still had two of its top pitchers — Stone and fellow senior Garrett Garrison — rested and ready to go.
Additional pitchers, and an additional game, proved to be completely unnecessary. Gunnar Garrison clamped down on a dangerous University offense, effectively putting the clamps on another Reds championship.
“This is very special,” Gunnar Garrison said. “When I got the call to go to the bullpen, my nerves were going, my adrenaline was rushing. I knew I had to be ready to help out the team and pump up the crowd. Coming in midgame, Mitch handed me the ball and he told me the saying we always yell in the dugout: ‘Hold the rope. Who do you want on that other end holding that rope?’ …
“Itap really a family out here. And being able to come out here and win another state title is just awesome.”
— Bobby Fernandez covers high school sports for the Greeley Tribune. Reach him at (970) 392-4478, by email at bfernandez@greeleytribune.com or on X @BobbyDFernandez.
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