LAKEWOOD — Regis Jesuit looks ready to finish the job.
The Raiders, Class 5A runner-up to Cherry Creek the past two seasons, beat top-seeded Arvada West in Saturday’s semifinal at All-Star Park to return to the championship for a third straight year.
Regis Jesuit won 14-8 in a high-octane, see-saw game where both teams had to dig deep into their pitching staffs after using their aces to win twice on Friday. Arvada West head coach Danny Vais was ejected in a pivotal fifth inning where the Raiders took control for good.
“(The vibe) feels pretty excited, but our business is not done,” Regis Jesuit head coach Matt Darr said. “Today, we executed some little things, and it turned into a big inning (in the fifth). We’ve been preaching bunting and getting guys over and just adding on runs, and then the next thing you know, it breaks open. And that’s what this game was, because I knew it was going to be a higher-scoring game as the third game of the weekend.”
The drama started to build in the bottom of the fourth, when Regis Jesuit led 5-4. After a leadoff walk, Arvada West’s Brayden Davies was picked off by Raiders southpaw Finn Judge. The Wildcats were incensed about the play, arguing that Judge crossed the 45-degree mark on the pickoff, and thus the play should’ve been ruled a balk.
Brayden Reiner tripled later in the inning, which would’ve scored Davies and tied the game 5-5, further compounding the Wildcats’ frustration.
That frustration boiled over in the fifth. After Regis Jesuit opened the top of the frame by drawing consecutive walks, it got a bunt single by Carter Rathbun to load the bases, Jack Manthey drilled a bases-clearing double down the right-field line to make it 8-4. Vais then pulled pitcher Jake Richards, and while senior Beau Friesen was warming up, Vais was ejected after having words with first-base umpire John McFarland.
Vais, who said he has never been ejected during a CHSAA game as Arvada West’ boys basketball and baseball coach, was incensed about what he said was an unwarranted ejection by McFarland. Vais said he wanted an explanation on the non-balk call in the fourth inning, and McFarland refused to give him one.
“I said (to McFarland), ‘This is the biggest game of the year, and I can’t even have a conversation with you?'” Vais said. “He warned me when I said that… and then he restricted me to the dugout. I was walking away, and I said (again), ‘This is the biggest game of the year,’ and that’s when he launched me. I didn’t cuss.
“… That ejection was probably more off of my reputation than off of what was said. (CHSAA baseball commissioner John) Sullivan said the same thing to me when we talked (after the ejection): ‘I’ve heard good things and I’ve heard bad things about you… That you’re intense.’ But what are we supposed to be? We’re playing in the friggin’ Final Four, man. Are you supposed to just be soft, and it’s everybody gets cupcakes, and it’s all rainbows out here?”
By CHSAA bylaw, Vais has to serve a two-game suspension due to the ejection. That means he would only be eligible to return in the if-necessary championship next Saturday should the Wildcats beat the winner of Legend/Pine Creek and then beat Regis Jesuit in the first of two possible title games.
Sullivan said there is no appeal process for coach ejections, but that CHSAA would review the umpire game report to get a full understanding of McFarland’s decision. Vais vowed to fight the suspension.
After Vais’ ejection, Regis Jesuit scored another run in the fifth via an infield single, then tacked on two more runs in the sixth with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single to push the score to 11-4. Arvada West got a run back in the bottom of the sixth, then Friesen had a chance to get the Wildcats back in the game when he came up with the bases loaded. But Lucas Stavenger struck out Friesen, who leads Arvada West with nine homers this year.
a Vanderbilt commit, then put the game on ice in the seventh with a towering three-run homer off Liam West that landed in the parking lot beyond left field to increase the Raiders’ lead to 14-5.
“Our approach today was to just compete every at-bat and consistently find ways to get on-base, and we did that,” Alpert said. “We had a lot of hits (with 16), a lot of baserunners, and good at-bats leading up to that homer.”
The Raiders grabbed the momentum in the top of the first, using Brady Wright’s two-out, two-RBI single off Luke Alonso to take an early lead. Arvada West got one back in the bottom of the frame via a wild pitch by Ryan Neumann, cutting the score to 2-1, but stranded a couple of runners.
A leadoff triple in the second by the Raiders’ Greyson Glasheen led to Chase Massey’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. But Arvada West tied the game in the bottom of the frame using Reiner’s RBI single and Cooper Vais’ sacrifice fly.
Arvada West took its first lead in the third, when Levi Lueck blasted a homer to right field off Judge. That made it 4-3, but the scoreboard swung back to Regis Jesuit in the fourth, when Jacob Olson’s two-RBI double off Arvada West’s Cole Eisenreich made it 5-4.
Regis Jesuit didn’t relinquish the lead from there.
“Regis is a really good, mature offensive team,” Danny Vais said. “They can beat you in a ton of different ways… We’ve got to go back to the drawing board next weekend. Cooper and Braiden have to win us two games on the mound, then we need somebody to step up and make some pitches (in the if-necessary championship game).”
The Wildcats’ loss snapped a 22-game win streak and was their first defeat in Colorado this season. While the road to their second state title and first since 1994 just got steeper, Regis Jesuit is in prime position to win its fourth title and first since 2019. The Raiders will undoubtedly start Alpert, who returned earlier this season from offseason elbow surgery, in that first championship shot next Saturday.
The right-hander threw four-plus innings of two-run ball in the opening-round win over Mountain Vista on Friday, with 68 pitches. Alpert said he is ready to run his pitch count up to approximately 80 pitches next Saturday, which would be a season high, as the Raiders attempt to clinch the title on their first try in
“His pitch count has slowly gone up where he can throw a little bit more, a little bit more, and his value on the mound is huge but it’s bigger than that for this team,” Darr said. “Here’s a kid who’s committed to Vanderbilt and who could have just very easily said, ‘I’m not going pitch,’ because he’s got a huge future ahead of him.
“There’s a lot of kids that would do that, but he wants a ring. That’s motivating for the rest of our players, because he’s our leader. They know how much he wants to win after coming up just short the last couple years.”
