The Denver Post has awarded the Gold Helmet to the state’s top high school senior football player, scholar and citizen since 1951, but the honor was teetering on extinction a couple years ago. Amid cutbacks, the newspaper decided to no longer fund the award — which consists of a gold-dipped trophy, plus a banquet for the winner — and that’s when , then The Post’s sports editor, knew we needed a preservation plan.

So Schubert and I looked at what we had recently done to start the Roy Halladay Award, which uses the same parameters to honor a baseball player each year. The Roy Halladay Award is backed by a nonprofit, the Colorado High School Baseball Player Award Corporation, so we copied that model to get funding for the Gold Helmet to make the legacy football award sustainable.

That blueprint has since been duplicated twice this year to fund honors for girls sports. In the spring, we launched the April Heinrichs Award for girls soccer. And this weekend, we announced the creation of the Colorado Gold Softball Award to honor a standout in that sport.

You might be wondering why The Denver Post is partnering with nonprofits that honor excellence in four different CHSAA sports. The reason is I believe it’s critically important that these young adults, who are stars on the field, in the classroom and in their community, get their due. The winners of these awards — plus the finalists, whom we also do a story on — are student-athlete standard-setters, and we should hold them up as examples of everything that is right about Colorado high school sports.

Consider the accomplishments of the three most recent winners of the Gold Helmet, Roy Halladay and April Heinrichs Awards, and how these individuals were north stars for others in the hallways of their school in addition to dominating on the field of play:

• Northfield linebacker/safety Elian Oliva had a 5.02 GPA, co-founded the Nighthawks’ UNICEF chapter, was a math tutor for peers, a youth flag football coach and spent four years as a summer-camp counselor. He is currently at the University of Miami, where he’ll do track and field.

• Montezuma-Cortez shortstop Cory Dean Carver had a 4.26 GPA, and volunteered as a youth baseball coach, at a feeder elementary school, and at an assisted living facility where he played piano for residents, did yard work and cleaned the exterior of the building. He just started at the United States Naval Academy, where he’ll play baseball.

• Denver North winger Lea Gentry had a 4.98 GPA and a long list of community service including volunteering at soup-and-sandwich lines for the homeless and helping coordinate a food and shelter relief project for Venezuelan migrants. She is currently playing at Oregon State, where she’s emerged as a starter as a freshman and is already .

I have no doubt that the winner of our inaugural Colorado Gold Softball Award, to be announced in November following the conclusion of the high school season in late October, will have a similarly impressive resume to the above three individuals.

Our ability to honor an elite female student-athlete in soccer and now softball is because of the tenacity of a Colorado girls sports trailblazer, which then led to the primary donor behind the awards in both sports.

After we announced the launch of the Roy Halladay Award last year, Mary Kvamme emailed me asking why we didn’t have any such awards for girls sports. At the advent of Title IX, launched an array of girls sports programs, and was a longtime volleyball coach who led Arvada West to the 1977 state title. Kvamme also helped establish feeder programs in Jefferson County and pushed for statistics to validate the achievements of female athletes.

My response to Kvamme’s initial email explained that it was a matter of cost — these awards average about $6,000 a year to put on — and that we simply didn’t have the funding to support a girls sports award.

Undeterred, Kvamme wrote a letter to the editor about the topic. That letter was read by Arvada resident Adam Stevinson, who wanted to get involved with the effort to honor girls sports. Schubert and I met with him last summer, and early this year, Stevinson contributed a sizable donation to give us many years of runway for the April Heinrichs Award. This August, Stevinson stepped up again, pledging an initial donation to fund the Colorado Gold Softball Award.

His donations, as well as an annual contribution from towards the April Heinrichs Award, enabled us to create much-needed gender equity in our awards. We now have a boys and girls award in the fall, as well as a boys and girls award in the spring. (The Denver Post has also given out Mr. and Ms. Colorado Basketball each winter since 1993, but those awards aren’t currently backed by a nonprofit and thus don’t come with a trophy, banquet or scholarship.)

The last thing I want to do is start one of these awards and have it fizzle out after a few years. With the way the nonprofits are set up, I am confident that we will be giving out these four awards in perpetuity.

The Gold Helmet, a beacon in Colorado high school football for 75 years, has new life largely thanks to the fraternity of successful past winners who have put their money behind the award. The Roy Halladay Award has an array of sponsors, including the Rockies, former Jeffco stadium operations manager Byron Hanson, and the . As for the girls awards, we are just getting off the ground and are looking for additional sponsors to ensure we can properly honor elite girls soccer and softball players for many years to come.

Looking down the road, the bigger picture for all these awards is to increase the amount of impact points on the Colorado high school sports community.

For example, the Colorado High School Baseball Player Award Corporation is starting a Roy Halladay Legacy Program that is giving $1,000 to an in-need CHSAA baseball program each year so that the team can buy necessities such as balls and equipment. And there is already discussion within the board of the Colorado High School Girls Soccer Player Award Corporation to expand the nonprofit’s scholarship program to include its award’s finalists.

As a board member for all four of these awards, I encourage fans of Colorado high school sports to consider donating to these nonprofits. Even a small annual tax-deductible donation can go a long way to expanding each award’s reach and longevity.

As evidenced by the list of past Gold Helmet selections, the winners of these awards are future leaders in our society. Honoring them gives young athletes across Colorado something to aspire to, and you, reader, can help us in continuing to set that standard of excellence.

Colorado high school sports awards at-a-glance

Gold Helmet Award

����ǰ���:��Football

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Most recent winner: Elian Oliva, Northfield

Winner gets: Feature story, trophy, banquet, recognition at Broncos game

Associated nonprofit: Gold Helmet Award Corporation

Board president: Matt Schubert

How to donate: 

Gold Softball Award

Sport: Softball

Founded: 2026

Most recent winner: Inaugural winner TBA

Winner gets: Feature story, trophy, banquet, $1,000 scholarship, recognition at Rockies game

Associated nonprofit: Colorado High School Softball Player Award Corporation

Board president: Kyle Newman

How to donate: Email knewman@denverpost.com

Roy Halladay Award

Sport: Baseball

Founded: 2025

Most recent winner: Cory Dean Carver, Montezuma-Cortez

Winner gets: Feature story, trophy, banquet, $1,000 scholarship, recognition at Rockies game

Associated nonprofit: Colorado High School Baseball Player Award Corporation

Board president: Ed Henderson

How to donate:

April Heinrichs Award

Sport: Girls Soccer

Founded: 2026

Most recent winner: Lea Gentry, Denver North

Winner gets: Feature story, trophy, banquet, $1,000 scholarship, recognition at Summit FC game

Associated nonprofit: Colorado High School Girls Soccer Player Award Corporation

Board president: Kyle Newman

How to donate:

Mr. Colorado Basketball

Sport: Boys Basketball

Founded: 1993

Most recent winner: Eric Fiedler, Regis Jesuit

Winner gets: Feature story

Associated nonprofit: None, but a possibility for the future

Board president: N/A

How to donate: Email knewman@denverpost.com

Ms. Colorado Basketball

����ǰ���:��Girls basketball

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Most recent winner: Brihanna Crittendon, Riverdale Ridge

Winner gets: Feature story

Associated nonprofit: None, but a possibility for the future

Board president: N/A

How to donate: Email knewman@denverpost.com

The Colorado native spent his freshman season at Lakewood High School, before his family decided to move to Parkland, Florida, so the promising left-hander could incubate in a top-tier baseball state. Rojas landed at powerhouse Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has big leaguers and, at the time, was coming off a perfect season and its third straight state championship.

Rojas wondered how he would stack up there, but his worries dissipated into the humid Florida air in his first start for the Eagles as a sophomore: A complete game with 18 strikeouts, with the lone baserunner coming via a two-out hit in the final inning.

“I initially didn’t want to go to that school, because I was intimidated by their dominance,” Rojas said. “They were 29-0, (multiple-time) national champions, literally stacked with the best players in Florida. Little sophomore me was pretty darn scared.

“But we moved to Florida because I wanted to be challenged, and looking back on it now, it taught me a lot. I searched out the best, I got the best, and as a result, I had to perform my best. I was thrown into the deep end and I was able to swim my way around.”

Rojas swam his way to a first-round draft pick when he was selected at No. 16 overall by the Texas Rangers on July 11. He’s the highest high school pitcher drafted and the first first-round pick out of high school in Rojas plans on signing with the Rangers sometime in the next week. His bonus is expected to be right around the slot value of the pick, $5.05 million.

He’s going to buy his parents, Luis Rojas and Angela Meza, a house with his bonus. Both parents gave up their jobs in Colorado and had to find new ones in Florida as part of the move.

Gio and his older brother Eze Rojas — a former star at Lakewood who now — got their baseball genes from Luis, who was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up in New York City. Luis, an outfielder, out of TCU in the 15th round in 1981 and reached Double-A.

“It was really difficult (to keep up with travel ball expenses), and really challenging at times, and often Angela and I had to (divide and conquer) to drive the boys all over to get to their practices and games,” Luis Rojas said. “We had a lot of help from several different coaches along the way.”

Rojas has ‘always been an outlier’

One of those coaches was Dale LeMonds, who coached Gio on his first travel team at age 8.

LeMonds was a Division III All-American pitcher and runs the youth baseball club Parker Jets from the field he built in his backyard at his home in Parker. He says Rojas immediately stood out during the young ballplayer’s original tryout for the Jets.

“After his first throw from left field to second, I turned to Luis, and I said, ‘This kid’s going to be a pitcher, and he’s going to make a lot of money one day,'” LeMonds recalled. “You could just tell from his arm action, his arm slot, how his arm was just really whippy. He had those fast-twitch muscles as a pitcher and as a hitter, too. He’s always been an outlier.”

In Rojas’ travel ball debut at a tournament in Arizona, the 8-year-old opened the game by walking the bases loaded on 12 straight balls. Then, he proceeded to K the next three batters on nine straight strikes.

And back in Colorado, he quickly made a name for himself on the youth tournament circuit as one of the top arms in the state.

“The first time I saw him at Ulysses (Sports Complex) in Golden, imagine our surprise when he came out in a pool play game,” said Arvada West High School head coach Danny Vais, who coached Elite Baseball, one of the top club teams in Rojas’ age group. “A couple walks and passed balls by a kid struggling to catch him is the only reason we won.

“He was a dude from Day 1, and his athleticism was off-the-charts. He was always dominant, always top-end velo, always the pitcher to compare to.”

By the time Rojas got to Lakewood as a freshman, he was playing on a national travel team, and it was apparent that LeMonds’ forecast from six years prior was on the fast track to materializing. He appeared in nine games for the Tigers that year, posting a 3.84 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 27-plus innings.

All of that Colorado backstory led to the breakout in Florida, where Rojas emerged as the top-ranked high school pitcher in the nation. He was one of four Colorado arms to get drafted out of high school this year, joining Grandview’s Ethan Wachsmann (third round by the Twins), Mountain Vista’s Keaton Maiorana (15th round by the Brewers) and Eaton’s Gunnar Garrison (18th round by the Orioles).

Developing a big-league makeup

Rojas pitched in five games in his debut season at Stoneman Douglas, allowing just two earned runs over 21-plus innings, with 41 strikeouts to three walks. He was a complementary arm on Stoneman Douglas’ stacked pitching staff as the Eagles won a fourth straight title in Class 7A, Florida’s largest classification.

Stoneman Douglas head coach described Rojas as “a stud the minute he walked in here,” and Fitz-Gerald’s first impression was that Rojas was going to get drafted in the top five rounds.

But Rojas blew past that projection thanks to an incessant work ethic and by competing in top national competitions during the summers.

“He has the makeup (of a big-leaguer) and he has the character piece,” Fitz-Gerald said. “There’s not may guys like (Phillies all-star pitcher) Jesús Luzardo or (Red Sox outfielder) Roman Anthony (both of whom played for me at Stoneman Douglas), but Gio is one of those guys. And Gio is much better than Jesús was at this time in his career.”

Rojas’ fastball sat around 92 mph as a sophomore, but he added heat over the past couple of years, and was 93-96 mph this year while topping out at 99. The 6-foot-4 southpaw also has a high-spin rate slider, a curveball, a changeup and a cutter that made him nearly impossible to hit at the high school level.

En route to earning in 2025, Rojas emerged as Stoneman Douglas’ ace by going 13-0 with a 0.72 ERA and 120 strikeouts. He took the dominance to another level this season, going 11-1 with a 0.58 ERA and 124 strikeouts. All told in his the Coloradan was 28-1 with a 0.65 ERA and 285 Ks to just 36 walks.

He was central in Stoneman Douglas extending its championship run to six straight titles, including throwing 6 2/3 innings of one-hit ball in this year’s championship, where Rojas was prevented from a complete game only because he hit his pitch count. Fitz-Gerald rolled the dice by saving Rojas for the title in the single-elimination state tournament.

“Normally, I would never leave my horse in the pen (in the semifinals),” Fitz-Gerald said. “But my seniors were really adamant, like, ‘Don’t worry about Friday, Coach. We’re going to get Friday. We just want Gio for Saturday.’

‘It was lucky enough to work out, and then he went out and just absolutely dominated in the title. Venice was No. 1 in the country at the time, and only one guy got to second base, and the hit he gave up was a blooper just over our shortstop’s glove.”

As Rojas is set to begin his pro career, LeMonds predicts he’ll be an MLB All-Star. And Fitz-Gerald thinks Rojas will fast-track himself to Arlington.

“I think two-and-a-half years from now, he’ll be a big leaguer,” Fitz-Gerald said. “He’s a product of his own work ethic. And God gave him a thunderbolt for an arm.”

Evie Mumm was out of place. Every time she’s joined a new baseball team, she’s had to prove she belongs. The fact is, Evie is a girl. And this has long been a boys’ game.

“Usually, I kind of have to work and prove myself for about a week,” the Longmont High School junior said. “And then they see how well I can ball, and it����ap good vibes from there.”

When Evie arrived at her first summer baseball workout for the Trojans as a freshman, her mom and dad couldn’t help but feel nervous. Evie, on the other hand, just wanted to play.

“My wife and I were so impressed with her guts,” her dad Erik said. “To walk on that field and pass the dugout with, you know, 17- and 18-year-old guys, almost men, sitting there wondering, ‘What the heck is going on?’”

Baseball has evolved over the centuries, but Evie remains an uncommon sight.

Her dad played at Nebraska in the late 1990s, but Evie didn’t discover baseball herself until about five years ago. She calls it serendipity. After missing the sign-up period for another softball season, her mom asked if she wanted to try baseball instead.

“Watching her out there, she just wants to be on the baseball field,” Erik said. “I mean, we’ve tried other sports. She’s a great volleyball player, for example, and we love the fact she still plays volleyball. But, you know, it����ap so obvious that baseball is her love.”

Less obvious, however, was whether the game would ever accept her.

There were growing pains, as expected. Erik reminded Evie that difficult times are just part of the game. “Everyone struggles,” he said.

Erik still remembers Evie going hitless through her first eight or nine games.

“Then, one game, it clicked,” he beamed. “I could tell by her body language in the batter’s box. I turned to my wife and said, ‘She’s going to get a hit here.’ And sure enough, she put one over the shortstop’s head. And from that point on, she was just a force to be reckoned with.”

There were still some on the diamond who’d rather not reckon with a girl.

Evie has been heckled and whispered about, and at times she can’t help wondering if there’s more bubbling beneath the surface.

While playing on the freshman team for Longmont two years ago, she said she was hit by a pitch “14 or 15 times” during the season — enough for her to believe it was intentional.

Asked why she thought she’d be getting hit on purpose, she answered without pause. “I don’t think they wanted to have to admit I got a hit off them.”

Other acts of sexism have been more explicit.

Liam Forsythe, Evie’s teammate over the past few seasons, has seen it firsthand.

“After games, I’ve seen a lot of umpires ask her why she’s not playing softball, which I think is dumb,” the rising senior said. “And then there’s some stuff guys on other teams say. Some will make jokes about getting her number and stuff like that.”

Evie bats left-handed, throws right-handed and is equally strong in the middle infield as she is behind the plate. Last season, she played at the junior varsity level for Longmont. Next spring, she and Liam are vying for spots on varsity.

“When I’m pitching, there’s nobody I’d rather have catching,” Liam said of Evie. “She’s just a fun teammate to be around, and she’s so encouraging and funny. After almost every practice and every game, a few of us go hang out or grab food together. She’s an amazing person, and I really enjoy playing alongside her.”

Tom Fobes, the Trojans’ head coach for the past 26 years, has also embraced Evie.

Initially, he said, he wasn’t sure how it would play out.

“I’ve never even had a girl try out,” Fobes said. “There was one year when there was a rumor a girl was going to come out for the program, but she never did.”

The longtime coach said the only girl he remembers playing varsity was in the summer of 1998, when he was an assistant. He couldn’t remember her name but said she pitched and was impressive.

That same summer, women took another step forward in the sport when Ila Borders became the first female to start and win a men’s professional baseball game. With the Duluth-Superior Dukes of the independent Northern League, she pitched six scoreless innings against Sioux Falls to earn the win. The lineup card is housed at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Evie enters her junior year with a chance to become the first girl to play varsity baseball at her school. The jump could come as soon as this spring thanks to a new opening at second base — Evie’s primary position.

Evie’s dad, for one, likes her chances.

“She knows boys are bigger, they’re faster, they’re stronger,” he said. “But that����ap part of the beauty of baseball. You know Jose Altuve (the second baseman of the Houston Astros)? He’s what — 5-(foot)-6? And he’s a major leaguer.” Altuve is also a nine-time MLB All-Star.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than 470,000 students play high school baseball nationwide. About 1,300 are girls — roughly 0.28% of all players.

Last week, for the first time in her baseball life, Evie wasn’t the only girl on the field. At Major League Baseball’s Girls Development Camp in Florida, she was one of 64 players from across the U.S. and Canada to attend an event led by Team USA women’s baseball players, coaches and alumnae. The camp is part of MLB’s initiative to bring more girls into the game.

Evie and Windsor’s Elena Sagebiel were the lone attendees from Colorado.

“This is my first time playing with all women,” Evie said. “My entire career, I’ve been playing with men. So, it����ap been really great out here. It����ap really great competition.”

It����ap a sight she likely won’t see again anytime soon. Though she’s proven time and again that she belongs, baseball remains dominated by boys.

For now, she has her own Field of Dreams.

“It����ap an honor to be the first girl to play baseball at my high school, and it would be pretty cool to be able to be the first to play varsity for my school,” Evie said. “But I’m really just here to play ball and compete.”

Fossil Ridge and MSU Denver product made his big-league debut for the Reds on June 23 in Cincinnati. It was the culmination of a winding, decade-long journey to the bigs, featuring stops in the Puerto Rican Winter League and the independent American Association, plus two full years away from the game.

The first of those hiatuses came in 2020, after Garcia had made it to Double-A with the Phillies in 2019, only for the COVID pandemic to wipe out the next minor-league season. The second came in 2023, after Philadelphia released Garcia and it appeared the right-hander’s career might be over.

That’s where the kids came in. Garcia spent that summer teaching lessons at Slammers, reminding him of his fire to play the game.

“Those five-hour shifts every night working with kids made me enjoy the game again, and want to get back in it so badly, because it was so fun to see kids come in and be happy and love the game of baseball,” Garcia said. “At the time, and in the couple years before that, I didn’t love the game of baseball. I hated it. I found a way to complain about everything.

“… Just seeing the smiles on kids’ faces when they walked into the facility, it made me realize I took the game and having a jersey for granted. It was my childhood dream to play professional baseball, and I wasn’t going to give up on getting to the highest level.”

Emergence on the mound

Garcia’s unrelenting determination became a staple of his unlikely rise as the

His journey started on the fields of northern Colorado, where Garcia was a standout outfielder through his first few years at Fossil Ridge. He never had much interest in pitching while growing up, until he convinced then-Fossil Ridge coach Mark Findley to put him in a summer league game before his senior year.

“He said he could pitch (when he was an underclassman), but I wasn’t convinced at the time,” Findley recalled. “But he worked on his own time and with our pitching coach and made himself into a pitcher. That summer (ahead of senior year), it was pretty evident that, yeah, dumb coach, you probably missed the boat on this guy. As a senior, he was our best arm, and he shut down a lot of teams.”

  Garcia had a 2.19 ERA in seven games, with 56 strikeouts and a .136 opponent batting average. Despite a broken wrist that derailed his junior season and stunted his recruiting, Garcia’s performance as a senior caught the attention of MSU Denver, where the outfielder/pitcher went on scholarship as a two-way player.

After redshirting that first season in Auraria, the Roadrunners converted him to a pitcher-only, and after a decent 2015 season he emerged as MSU Denver’s ace in ’16. He posted a 2.90 ERA in 12 starts, leading to him being selected in the 10th round by the Phillies. He signed for an $80,000 bonus as the highest-drafted player in MSU Denver history.

“As he was growing through the back end of his first year playing for us and then that start of the second year in the fall, I started seeing that his ceiling was really high,” said MSU Denver deputy director of athletics , who was the Roadrunners’ baseball coach at the time. “The command of the fastball was there, but the breaking ball (curveball and slider) was really the thing that set him apart.”

The reset and adding a sweeper

Garcia began his professional career with only three seasons of pitching under his belt, so the right-hander entered the minors as a self-described “novice in pitching.”

“The first two years, I really had to learn the mechanics and how to mess up hitters’ timing,” Garcia said. “I just had to learn the art of pitching.”

By 2019, Garcia found his groove in High-A, posting a 2.78 ERA in 17 games (16 starts). Following the canceled COVID season, Garcia received an invitation to big-league camp during spring training in ’21, where he pitched across four levels and reached Triple-A. But he put too much pressure on himself and lost command of his slider, and in mid-July, got demoted back to Double-A.

There, he got lit up in one of the  when he gave up seven runs in two innings with three homers. The Phillies made him a full-time reliever during that time, and even though he returned to Triple-A later in the season, he says the lows of that summer “tore my confidence up.” By midseason 2022, it became clear he wasn’t in the Phillies’ future plans, and the organization granted his request for a release.

Garcia thought another opportunity would come quickly, but he found himself spinning his wheels.

“I was calling teams, texting teams, sending out video to anybody that would listen,” Garcia said. “I was posting videos on Twitter. I was on LinkedIn, trying to find anybody’s email that would give me a shot. I wasn’t giving up on baseball. But I knew I needed a reset to be around my family and to become a better pitcher and the pitcher that I knew I could be.”

In 2023, he worked out in the mornings and spent the evenings working at Slammers. Over the next couple of years, he abandoned his curveball and began developing a sweeper to complement his gyro slider and low-90s fastball.

The sweeper underscored his success in the Puerto Rican Winter League and the , where he played for the Kansas City Monarchs in 2024 and ’25 before signing with the Reds. The sweeper, which he’s thrown over half the time through three appearances for the Reds, averages 12.3 inches of horizontal break

With an enhanced repertoire, Garcia emerged as a star with the Monarchs in 2025, setting a single-season franchise best with 163 strikeouts and finishing just five Ks short of a new American Association record. Ahead of that season and during it, Garcia started to pile up interest and contract offers from foreign leagues, including Korea, Mexico and Taiwan.

But Garcia held out for another shot with an MLB organization.

“He started getting offers from overseas and opportunities to make a lot of money,” said Kansas City Monarchs manager Joe Calfapietra. “But he stayed razor-focused on his dream. I remember the conversations we had where he’d be like, ‘Joe, do you really believe that this is going to happen?’ We kept talking through all the different scenarios, and ultimately he just bet on himself.”

‘Nothing’s changed’ for Garcia

Last year, the average age of a debuting pitcher So to make his debut at 31, after a decade of chasing his dream and being in and out of affiliated baseball, Garcia needed more than just his drive and work ethic. He needed a camp.

His parents played a big role in that, as did his girlfriend, Hayley Fields, and his longtime trainer, Chris Adams.

Garcia and Fields started dating shortly before he was drafted, and Fields has been a constant throughout the pitcher’s highs and lows. When Garcia was starting his pro career in Low-A in Williamsport, Penn., in 2016, Fields took a job in Cleveland to be closer to him.

Fields, who works in the oil and gas industry, moved back to Denver after that and has traveled across the country and beyond to support her boyfriend.

“She pushed me to never give up on my dreams,” he said.

The two have put off marriage so Garcia could focus on his career, but Fields is hopeful the ring is coming soon.

“No matter where he’s been, if it was Kansas City with the Monarchs, I was driving the eight hours to go watch him on the weekends or stay a week,” Fields said. “Or I’d fly to New Jersey or (Florida) or wherever. I’ve always made it work and hoped that my presence would make him feel at home and a little bit less stressed about the situations he was in.”

Fields, who would also often serve as Garcia’s throwing partner throughout the years — right up until the day before the pitcher left for Reds spring training this year.

“One of my favorite stories is I’m catching for him at my parents’ (retirement) community on the softball field,” Fields said. “Then the next day, he was throwing to Elly (De La Cruz). He just told me he was thinking, ‘How did I get here? I was just playing catch with my girlfriend last night.'”

Now that he’s finally in the majors, there has been less time for games of catch between boyfriend and girlfriend. But Garcia’s approach remains the same, Adams said.

“Nothing’s changed, because nothing’s guaranteed,” Adams said. “He still has to prove himself, and now at the highest level on a one-year contract. But he will be fully prepared for each moment, just like he was in all the years leading up to his call-up.”

The Montezuma-Cortez senior shortstop was 10 years old when he decided that he wanted to chase his baseball dream beyond the state’s southwestern corner. But expanding his skills outside his small town of , which has approximately 9,000 residents and little opportunity for competitive baseball, meant a serious commitment to traveling. And that necessitated a stack of cash each summer to fuel that dream.

So the then-fifth-grader worked for his family’s hay and cattle company, getting up at dawn to irrigate, mend fences, and feed cows in the morning and at night. Carver was in charge of some of those cows that roamed the 50,000 acres the family leases from the government, and they had Carver’s brand on them; the family would sell the bulls in the springtime to help pay for his baseball.

“That’s really when my competitive career started out,” Carver said. “It was a lot of labor on the farm (to fund it). I would drive around machinery like tractors or skid steers to do it, and every day would load and unload bales of hay for all the cows to eat.

“The number one thing all that taught me was diligence. A lot of the times I’d wake up around 6 o’clock in the morning, thinking ‘I really don’t want to do this, this sucks, I hate this,’ but I’d get up and go anyways. It taught me diligence and being able to wake up every day and work hard to get what I wanted, and that translated to my baseball career, school, everything.”

Considering that genesis, it’s no surprise that Carver is the winner of The Denver Post’s 2026 , presented annually to the top senior baseball player, scholar and community member in Colorado.

Hits, grades, giveback

The Naval Academy signee dominated on the field, batting .580 with 46 RBIs, 13 doubles, four triples, seven homers, a .649 on-base percentage and 21 steals this year. For his career, Carver hit .501 with 127 RBIs, 49 doubles, 21 triples, 18 homers and 105 steals.

Off the diamond, the 18-year-old was equally as impressive to win the second annual Halladay Award. Carver carried a 4.26 GPA, and his community service resume included four years as a volunteer youth baseball coach, volunteering for fundraisers at Pleasant View Elementary, and volunteering at a local assisted living facility where he played piano for residents, did yard work and cleaned the exterior of the building.

In a vote by the Halladay Award’s 15-member section committee, Carver’s well-rounded body of work edged runner-up Hudson Alpert, a star right-hander at Regis Jesuit, as well as three other impressive finalists in Falcon right-hander/first baseman/outfielder Aaron Jaquez, Durango corner infielder/pitcher Austin Romero and Grandview right-hander Ethan Wachsmann.

For winning the award, Carver gets a trophy, a $1,000 scholarship from the nonprofit Colorado High School Baseball Player Award Corporation, a banquet held in his honor and recognition at Monday’s Rockies-Red Sox game at Coors Field.

“This means so much to me,” Carver said of winning the award named after the former Arvada West great and National Baseball Hall of Famer. “I’m honored, and it honestly came as a shock when I got the call that I won. (Getting an award) was never the motivation to do well in school or give back to my community, but I’m grateful to be recognized.”

Carver, a three-time Intermountain League Player of the Year, led the Panthers to the Class 3A state tournament this season and earned for his play. He’s a hard-nosed, old-school type of player who refuses to let his smaller frame — 5-foot-8, 150 pounds — define him.

With a game modeled after former Red Sox second baseman and American League MVP Dustin Pedroia, one teammate describes his approach to baseball as “all gas, no brakes.”

“He’s not afraid to get on a teammate in the dugout if they need it,” said close friend Jonah Castle, Carver’s longtime club teammate. “He’s not afraid to chew someone out because they’re not doing something right or they’re lacking effort. He just wants to bring the best out of everybody, and that’s what he does. But most of that is led by example.”

A three-state, four-pro journey

Carver’s journey from Cortez to Annapolis was shaped by four former professional players over significant time spent in three different states.

In Cortez, Carver had , who coached him in recreational Southwest Colorado Youth Baseball, and then became the shortstop’s head coach at Montezuma-Cortez the last three seasons. Huff played a couple of seasons in the Padres’ organization, reaching as high as Double-A.

Carver’s coaching circle also featured , his trainer in Farmington, New Mexico, who played 10 minor-league seasons for four different organizations, reaching Triple-A; , who played for the Diamondbacks and Rockies and helmed Carver’s Slammers team in Denver; and , a 16-year big-league veteran and 1991 World Series champion with the Twins who coached Carver’s club teams in Phoenix, Ariz.

“Having all of us as coaches was extremely valuable to Cory because he’d take bits and pieces from each of us, and from all these former pros he formed his own way of playing the game,” Jake Huff said. “The fact that Cory can make adjustments or bounce something off one coach and another coach to come up with a solution or a result that he desires just speaks volumes about him being a coachable kid.”

With those former pros overseeing his development — and with Carver finding families to stay with in Denver (a seven-hour drive from Cortez) and Phoenix (six hours) during continuous weekend trips to both places for tournaments — the omens for Carver’s excellence came early and often.

But first, there was a bona fide cry.

“When he was 11 years old, during a fall league game (in Farmington), I brought him in to pitch and close a game on the mound when we had like a six-run lead,” Morrissey recalled. “He ended up blowing the lead after a couple errors. I remember sitting there and he was starting to stress out on the mound — he wanted to get out of there. And I yelled out to him from the dugout, ‘No one’s coming to save you!’

“He bawled his eyes out right on the mound, in front of everyone. We ended up losing the game. … But he never cried on a field again after that day. That was the turning point for him of being tough mentally and being able to battle through anything on the field. And from that time on, there was no kid his age that worked harder than him.”

By the time Carver was an eighth grader, the foreshadowing of his Division I future was getting harder to ignore.

In Arizona, Carver played for Harper’s club team at a tournament at a complex featuring mini-replica MLB fields. Carver’s team was playing on the Fenway Park facsimile, and there was a temporary fence installed in the outfield. Carver hit a ball that sailed over that, and then over the Green Monster in left field.

“Whenever there was a big situation with the game on the line, I hoped we could get Cory at the plate, because he was going to put together a good, competitive at-bat,” Harper said. “And when he hit that ball over the Green Monster, it was kind of legendary.”

Olson cited a similar story from when Carver’s Slammers team traveled to a big tournament in Branson, Missouri, that summer prior to high school. There, Carver hit 10 homers in seven games, part of a torrid season where the shortstop batted .624 with 25 homers — an indication that although Carver isn’t the biggest guy, he knows how to tap into his power.

“He’s very athletic and he does a really good job of using the ground (with his back leg) to develop his power,” Olson said. “And he really just gets everything that he has into the baseball.”

Carver had no problem making the jump from middle school travel ball to the high school varsity, where he was a four-year starter for Montezuma-Cortez. But now an even greater challenge awaits as Carver heads to the , where he begins boot camp this week.

But he didn’t leave Cortez without one final omen this spring: a called shot, which came in an April 2 win over Roaring Fork.

“He watched a kid throw two pitches (from the dugout) and said, ‘I’m going to hit a home run in this at-bat,'” Huff recalled with a laugh. “And that’s exactly what he did. He was hunting a fastball and had the wind in his favor, so he knew if he got it up in the air, it was out of there.

“He got a fastball early in the count and hammered it out of the park. And when he rounded third base, he goes, ‘I told you so.'”

Player of the Year

Cooper Vais, Jr. RHP/SS, Arvada West

The Texas commit was an unstoppable force for the Class 5A runner-ups, batting .458 with seven homers plus a 0.62 ERA and 113 Ks on the mound.

Coach of the Year

Matt Eades, Pueblo County

In his ninth season, the 2005 Pueblo County graduate guided the Hornets to their first crown with a 4-0 mark the Class 4A state tournament.

Pitchers

Blake Swift, Sr. RHP, Pueblo County

The CHSAA Class 4A Player of the Year and Otero College commit put the Hornets on his back en route to the title with a 1.51 ERA in 15 games.

Hudson Alpert, Sr. RHP, Regis Jesuit

After returning at midseason from elbow surgery, the Vanderbilt commit had a 1.91 ERA in seven games, and also hit .449 for the Class 5A champs.

Ethan Wachsmann, Sr. RHP, Grandview

The Wake Forest commit touched 100 mph this season as opponents hit .159 vs him; threw a no-hitter, and had a 2.10 ERA in 9 games with 66 Ks.

Hunter Vitello, Jr. RHP, Denver South

The DPS standout threw a no-hitter against Ralston Valley in the Class 5A regional opener. He logged 101 strikeouts and just 15 walks, with a 2.17 ERA.

Gunnar Garrison, Sr. RHP, Eaton

The Arizona State commit with a mid-90s heater was a centerpiece of Eaton’s Class 3A Final 4 team, with a 1.62 ERA in 11 games with 116 strikeouts.

Jake Watts, Jr. RHP, Ralston Valley

The Mustangs’ ace and Evansville pledge posted a 2.50 ERA in 8 games, with 70 strikeouts while limiting hitters to a paltry .146 average.

Colten Smith, Jr. RHP, Legend

The BYU commit with a low-90s fastball was critical in Legend’s Class 5A Final 4 run, posting a 3.00 ERA in 10 games and rising up down the stretch.

Mikey Kroll, Jr. RHP, Regis Jesuit

A one-two punch in the Raiders’ rotation behind Alpert, Kroll threw four shutout innings in the Class 5A title game and had a 2.73 ERA in 8 games.

Josh Weaver, Sr. RHP, Fruita Monument

In addition to being a force in the lineup, the Wildcats’ ace and Cowley commit had a 1.52 ERA in 11 games, including 92 Ks to just 11 walks.

Sawyer Tipton, Sr. RHP, Mountain Vista

With a 1.84 ERA in 12 games, Tipton was the Golden Eagles’ unquestionable ace, and the Lehigh commit also racked up 79 strikeouts to 23 walks.

Max Goldberg, Sr. LHP, Cherry Creek

The Boston College commit dominated this spring, with a 1.79 ERA in 10 games, 73 Ks to 21 walks, and held opponents to a .195 average.

Catchers

Cole Teltschik, Sr., Discovery Canyon

The Thunder’s powerful backstop and Missouri State commit led all classifications with 13 homers while hitting .593 with a ridiculous 2.096 OPS.

Brayden Reiner, Sr., Arvada West

A two-way senior pillar for the Class 5A runner-ups, the Newman University commit had a .410 on-base percentage; also was 11-0 with a 0.92 ERA.

Peter Worth, Sr., Northfield

The Washington University in St. Louis commit dominated with a .492 average, 26 RBIs and a 1.428 OPS in a spring that featured a natural cycle.

Walker Blanchard, Sr., Elizabeth

The Scottsdale Community College commit helped the Cardinals to the Class 3A state tournament, hitting .403 with a .494 on-base percentage.

Infielders

Damian Alvarez, Sr. SS, University

CHSAA’s Class 3A Player of the Year and centerpiece of UHS’s title team hit .546 with 26 extra-base hits; McLennan Community College commit.

Luc Gaca Thiele, Sr. 3B, Fossil Ridge

The Columbia commit batted .479 with a .585 on-base percentage and 33 RBIs as part of a dynamic infield duo alongside junior Brady Bradford.

Bret Baldwin, Jr. SS, Ralston Valley

The Washington commit hit .429 with a team-high seven homers while showcasing range, athleticism and arm strength from the middle infield.

Deion Cesario-Scott, Sr. 1B, Regis Jesuit

The Alabama A&M commit was a feared power presence in the Raiders’ lineup, batting .427 with seven homers, a .780 slugging and 1.344 OPS.

Cory Dean Carver, Sr. SS, Montezuma-Cortez

The Navy commit showcased speed, power and a high-contact approach, with a .580 average, seven homers, 21 steals and a .649 on-base percentage.

Matt Hegerle, Sr. SS, Bear Creek

The athletic UC Davis commit was the heartbeat of Bear Creek; he batted .477 with a .575 on-base percentage, 26 steals and a 1.267 OPS.

Chase Massey, Sr. SS, Regis Jesuit

The Continental League Player of the Year and Boston College commit led the Raiders with nine homers; hit .404 with an .830 slugging, 1.317 OPS.

Hunter Howard, Sr. SS, Palisade

The Glendale Community College commit hit .463 with six homers, 30 RBIs and only six Ks; also dominated on the mound with a 1.22 ERA.

Nick Hernandez, Sr. 2B, Pueblo County

The Hornets’ intelligent, dynamic leadoff hitter was the highlight of a deep lineup, hitting .435 with a .547 on-base percentage and 1.123 OPS.

Bryce Jackson, Sr. 1B, Broomfield

The Fort Hayes State commit was a force to be reckoned with in the box, with a team-high .480 average, .570 on-base percentage and six homers.

Outfielders

Zach Mediavilla, Sr., The Classical Academy

TCA’s do-everything speedy superstar batted .527 with seven triples, 25 RBIs, 31 steals and broke the school record for hits in season with 49.

Jackson Crawford, Jr., Mountain Vista

The Golden Eagles’ preeminent power hitter and USC commit blasted seven homers with a .349 average, .476 on-base percentage and a 1.211 OPS.

Dylan Paulson, Jr., Golden

The Demons’ top hitter batted .548 to lead Golden to its sixth straight Class 4A/3A Jeffco League title; had eight homers, 42 RBIs and a .946 slugging.

Silas Meuli, Sr., Legend

The Chandler Gilbert Community College commit was an offensive pillar for the Titans, batting .392 with four homers and a .568 on-base percentage.

Tanner Craytor, Sr., Fairview

The Knights’ slugger and Wofford commit led Class 5A with 11 homers to help Fairview to the Class 5A state tournament; batted .469, 1.660 OPS.

Baylor Schultz, Sr., Ponderosa

Schultz was key to a youth-laden Mustangs team that made the Class 4A Final 4, batting .393 and posting a 1.30 ERA in 12 games.

Tyce Smith, Sr., Cherry Creek

A multi-year cog in the middle of the Cherry Creek lineup, Smith led the Bruins with a .468 average, .602 on-base percentage and 1.279 OPS.

Jacob Olson, Sr., Regis Jesuit

The Oregon commit consistently flashed leather in center field for the Class 5A champs while hitting .388 with six homers, four triples and a .728 slugging.

Beau Friesen, Sr., Arvada West

A breakout star for the Wildcats en route to the Class 5A state title game, the San Diego pledge hit .438 with 44 RBIs and also blasted nine homers.

Utility

Maddox Burnett, Sr. RHP/UTL, Erie

A BYU commit who could hear his name called in the upcoming MLB Draft, Burnett hit .551 and also posted a 1.77 ERA with 105 Ks in 11 games.

Dane Dial, Soph. 3B/RHP, Pine Creek

Dial was key in Pine Creek’s Class 5A Final Four run, batting .400 with a .504 on-base percentage and seven homers; also had a 1.77 ERA in 12 games.

Aaron Jaquez, Sr. RHP/1B/OF, Falcon

The centerpiece on the Class 4A runner-ups was a two-way behemoth; McLennan Community College commit hit .629, and also had a 2.60 ERA.

Tristan Mullis, Jr. INF/OF, Pine Creek

Mullis paced Pine Creek with a .514 average, which included 6 triples, 6 homers, a .581 on-base percentage, .916 slugging and 1.497 OPS.

Andrew Henderson, Sr. 3B/RHP, Grand Junction

The Indiana State commit was the Tigers’ star en route to the Class 4A state tournament; hit .437, and posted a 1.53 ERA in 11 games with 86 Ks.

That was the message Eades delivered to his team on April 1, following a 9-6 road loss to then-No. 2 and undefeated Falcon. The Hornets bought it: From then on, Pueblo County went 17-1, including a flawless 4-0 in the state tournament to capture the Class 4A title, the first in the program’s history.

That feat earned Eades the honor of The Denver Post’s 2026 All-Colorado baseball Coach of the Year.

“When that game (on April 1) ended, I laid it out there to my team that if this was perhaps the best team in the state (in Falcon), we’re right there, too,” Eades recalled. “We talked about if there was a handicapper for the rest of the season, we’d be the favorite the rest of the way in every game we played. The boys took that to heart, and we really got rolling.”

The Hornets (23-6, 4A South Central League champions) became the first Home of Heroes baseball team to win a title since Pueblo West did so in 4A in 2019. And it was redemption for Pueblo County after losing to Holy Family in the championship two years ago. In that game, Hornets ace Blake Swift made his varsity debut in mop-up work in the 13-6 loss.

Swift was the centerpiece to Pueblo County’s title run this season, Eades’ ninth as head coach and 14th overall in the program. The senior right-hander bound for Otero College was 8-2 with a 1.51 ERA in 15 games, with 78 strikeouts as opponents hit just .184 against him.

An All-Colorado selection and the Swift dominated the state tournament. He pitched a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win over Grand Junction in the tournament opener, then with still room left in his daily pitch count, started the second game that followed with two more shutout innings in a 6-1 win over top-seeded Palisade.

In the title game, Swift notched a quality start with three earned runs across six-plus innings as the Hornets beat Falcon 9-4. While Swift did the heavy lifting on the mound, the Pueblo County offense — headlined by All-Colorado senior second baseman Nick Hernandez, who was 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs in the title and led the team with a .435 average on the season — couldn’t be stopped.

“When Blake’s on the mound, we were a different team confidence-wise,” Eades said. “And we were deep on offense. We had a lineup that overwhelmed pitching staffs with nine guys that can really swing it.”

The championship marked a pinnacle for Eades, who was overcome with emotion after hoisting the trophy at the Air Force Academy. Eades, a 2005 Pueblo County graduate, didn’t play high school baseball.

But he has long been infatuated with the game and spent his high school days umpiring. From there, his first coaching gig was at the youth level for a 12U team while in college at CSU Pueblo. He coached that team until those players reached high school, then joined the Pueblo County staff as a volunteer assistant in 2013.

“Coaching that youth team gave me that fire like, ‘Man, I would really like to see how I do at the high school level,'” Eades said. “When I finally got the chance, I just ran with it.”

The Hornets haven’t had a losing season with Eades at the helm, as they’ve made the playoffs every year and made five state tournament appearances. The 39-year-old is 148-55 in his tenure, including 18-11 in the playoffs.

Swift says Eades’ combination of leadership, humor and passion helped propel the Hornets to the title. It’s only for a school that’s been open since 1953, joining titles in wrestling (2016 and ’17), softball (1995) and girls basketball (1981).

“We knew this was possible,” Blake Swift said. “We just had to just break through and show the state what we had. (Eades) kept us together and on track all season to reach our ultimate goal.”

All-Colorado Coach of the Year Finalists

Matt Darr, Regis Jesuit — The Raiders’ boss earned his third state title, and second in Class 5A, as loaded Regis Jesuit avenged two straight runner-up finishes with a masterful state tournament performance by beating Arvada West in the winner-take-all championship, 5-3.

Casey Miller, University — The Bulldogs felt short in the Class 3A title four years in a row, but University didn’t leave a doubt this year, rampaging through the state tournament by a combined score of 36-4. That included smashing rival Eaton 19-2 in the semifinals.

Danny Vais, Arvada West — The Wildcats reached their first title since 1995 and came up a few runs short in the championship defeat to Regis Jesuit. Vais coached the core of A-West’s senior impact players, as well as his son, junior superstar Cooper Vais, since elementary school.

The winner, who will be announced next week, receives a trophy, a $1,000 scholarship, an honorary luncheon, and recognition at a Colorado Rockies game.

Position: RHP/MIF GPA: 4.02 College: Vanderbilt

The Raiders’ centerpiece helped the program reach four straight Class 5A state tournaments, including three consecutive title games, as Regis Jesuit returned to the mountaintop with a championship this year. Alpert batted .449 with 33 RBIs, 12 doubles, four homers and a .500 on-base percentage this spring. He returned pitching midseason from elbow surgery and posted a 1.91 ERA in seven games, with a 1.98 career ERA in 38 games. He put in 127 hours through Regis Jesuit’s community service program, including volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission and serving as a buddy in the Miracle League.

Position: SS GPA: 4.26��College: Navy

Carver led the Panthers to the Class 3A state tournament during a season in which he dominated in all three phases. He hit .580 with 46 RBIs, 13 doubles, four triples and seven homers with a .649 on-base percentage. A career .501 hitter, the speedster who won Intermountain League Player of the Year multiple times finished with 105 stolen bases over four seasons. He volunteered as a youth baseball coach at a local assisted living home and at his elementary school, where he handled various tasks, projects, and fundraisers. He also tutored fellow students and was an assistant athletic trainer at MCHS.

Position: RHP/1B/OF GPA: 4.0 College: McLennan Community College

Jaquez was the headliner on a Falcons team that returned to the Class 4A state tournament and finished runner-up to Pueblo County. A dominating arm with a low-90s heater and a plus sider, Jaquez was capable of shutting down any lineup he faced. He could also rake, as evidenced by his .620 average, 45 RBIs, 20 doubles, three homers and a .682 on-base percentage. He had 56 Ks as a pitcher and just five as a hitter. He helped create a stronger culture within the Falcon program, including serving as a mentor and role model to younger players on the team and participating in school activities.

Position: 3B/1B/RHP GPA: 4.17 College: Arkansas State University Mid-South

Durango made consecutive Class 4A state tournament appearances behind the play and leadership of Romero, a pillar in the lineup and corner infield for the Demons who also contributed on the mound. Romero batted .412 with 23 RBIs and a .479 one-base percentage, and finished his career with a .409 average plus a 4.85 ERA in 35 games. His impact beyond the diamond was profound: Romero founded the school’s Unified Sports Club, serves on the leadership team for the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, is heavily involved with DECA, and has tutored his peers in financial literacy.

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The Wolves’ ace with a 100-mph heater is a Top 100 prospect entering next month’s MLB Draft, when he may have the chance to bypass Wake Forest to go straight to the pro ranks. He had a 2.10 ERA in nine games in 2026, including two complete games and a no-hitter against Mullen. Opponents hit just .159 against him as he racked up 66 strikeouts to only 14 walks. He also hit .467 with 13 RBIs in 34 plate appearances. Wachsmann volunteered at youth baseball camps for two local clubs and helped the Wolves’ coaching staff organize camps at Grandview.

Honorable Mention

These players also received votes from the award’s 15-member selection committee: Zach Mediavilla, RHP/OF/SS, The Classical Academy; Matthew Hegerle, SS, Bear Creek (UC Davis); Peter Worth, C, Northfield (Washington University in St. Louis); Brayden Reiner, C/RHP, Arvada West (Newman University); Sawyer Tipton, RHP, Mountain Vista (Lehigh University); Ben McLean, SS/RHP, Forge Christian (Colby Community College); Hunter Howard, SS/RHP, Palisade (Glendale Community College); Christian Ramirez, SS/RHP, Adams City (Northwestern Community College); Hazen Weber, LHP/1B/OF, Platte Valley (York University).

In the Raiders’ fifth-straight state tournament appearance, and after consecutive runner-up finishes, Regis Jesuit finally got back to the top on Saturday at All-Star Park. The Raiders beat Arvada West in the , 5-3, after the Wildcats pushed them to the brink in the double-elimination tournament by topping Regis Jesuit earlier in the day.

The triumph marked Regis Jesuit’s fourth state title, and first since 2019, when the Raiders also won under head coach Matt Darr. In his sixth title game appearance, Darr came away with his third ring. He also won one with Denver Christian in 2013.

“Relief,” Matt Darr said. “It feels good. For some of our players, they’ve been through a lot of this heartbreak (the last few years). You can say the pressure of not winning in years past doesn’t matter, but it does — being here at state, being close, being in this spot two years ago against Cherry Creek when they (beat us twice on the final day) and came back to win.

“… All of (the championships I’ve won) are special, but this one feels a little more special because of the years leading up to it, and the failures, the second places, and thinking, ‘Oh God, if I’m second again, I don’t know if I can handle that.'”

But this season would be different, even after Arvada West put the pressure on with an initial win.

Saturday’s morning game featured a showdown of aces between two of the top players in the state. Regis Jesuit threw senior right-hander , a Vanderbilt commit, while Arvada West rolled out junior right-hander Cooper Vais, a Texas pledge. Both stars threw complete games as Regis Jesuit, in the driver’s seat of the bracket after going 3-0 last weekend and beating Arvada West in the semifinal, failed to clinch the crown on the first try.

“We knew we were still in a good spot, and we were very confident (despite the opening loss),” Hudson Alpert said. “We felt like we had more pitching behind me. … I’ve been through two losses in the finals, and I was tired of seeing other teams happy. I wanted us to be happy for once, and I never lost faith we could get there to that feeling.”

The Wildcats nicked Alpert for two runs in the second inning, then tacked on another in the third via Levi Lueck’s RBI single. Vais held the fort from there, showcasing a plus slider and changeup along with a fastball touching 90. Regis Jesuit plated a couple runs in the top of the seventh, but Vais induced a groundout to end the game and strand the tying runner in a 3-2 Wildcats’ win.

Vais’ stellar performance came after the Wildcats used their other top pitcher, senior right-hander Brayden Reiner, to . With Vais and Reiner unavailable on Saturday afternoon, the Raiders took advantage immediately.

Regis Jesuit plated five runs in the opening inning off senior Cole Eisenreich, using three hits and four walks to take command early. Raiders senior Carter Rathbun had the frame’s big hit, a bases-clearing double that ignited the red-clad fanbase down the first base line.

“We had momentum still, and we jumped on them,” Darr said. “That was key.”

Eisenreich didn’t make it through the first, and freshman Jake Richards came on in relief. The right-hander pitched like a vet, throwing up zeros in the second, third and fourth, but Arvada West couldn’t get to Raiders junior pitcher Mikey Kroll. The 6-foot-4 right-hander shut out Arvada West for four innings before an hour and 20-minute lightning delay, whereupon the Raiders turned the ball over to junior right-hander Cade Filleman.

That’s when the tenor of the game changed. The Wildcats scored three runs in the fifth as Regis Jesuit lost its composure on several plays, allowing Arvada West to gain momentum. Arvada West had three RBI hits, including a two-out double by senior Luke Alonso to cut the deficit to two.

“When we won it in 2019, we had the exact same scenario — an hour-and-a-half delay,” Darr said. “It felt like it was time to get Kroll out of the game. … You could tell the moment was getting to us, all that time thinking about it in the dugout. But we re-grouped.”

Beau Friesen pitched the fifth and sixth for the Wildcats, and the senior right-hander stranded the bases loaded in the former inning and left two men on in the latter. That set up a last chance for Arvada West, but Filleman battled through two soft hits with two outs before getting Lueck to line out to right to end the game with runners on second and third.

Filleman used mixed heavy slider usage with his mid-80s fastball and an occasional changeup to prevent the Wildcats’ comeback from completing.

“They had a couple hits happen to fall (in the seventh), but I knew I just needed to keep throwing strikes to get us over the finish line,” Filleman said.

Regis Jesuit, the Continental League champions, finished 23-7. Arvada West, making its first title appearance since 1995, finished 26-5 and the Jeffco League champions’ lone in-state losses came to the Raiders.

Arvada West head coach Danny Vais — who returned to the dugout Saturday afternoon after serving a two-game suspension for what he says was an unwarranted ejection in last weekend’s semifinal — saw the bright side in the Wildcats’ defeat, even as his players were visibly emotional.

Vais has coached a majority of Arvada West’s current seniors and a few of the Wildcats’ juniors, including his son Cooper, since that group was in elementary school.

“To get back and be able to finish this with them, and fight after going down early, and be in it until the last at-bat — that’s something I’ll remember forever,” Vais said. “Obviously you want to win these games, but it’s so much more than just chasing the elusive goal of winning the state championship. I’ve been on a decade-long journey with these kids in their baseball career. I hope that these are the best baseball memories of their lives.”

By the time he’d been asked to take the mound, there wasn’t much he could do to save his team. The Hornets needed two wins that day, having climbed out of the depths of the double-elimination bracket. Down big in the first game, they had essentially run out of pitchers. They just needed an innings eater. Blake Swift obliged.

“His first pitching appearance of his career,” Pueblo County coach Matt Eades recalled two years later, as if he still couldn’t quite believe the circumstances of it.

Welcome to the big leagues, kid. Now give us a few innings in the state championship game.

Swift gave Eades four. . A first baseball state title in school history eluded Pueblo County. Eades approached Swift and another sophomore, JJ Barger, in the dugout after the game.

“He told us we’ll be back,” Swift said. “And he wasn’t lying. We knew we’d be back.”

Swift’s career ended with a dogpile on the same diamond two years later. Pitching into the seventh inning, the senior led Pueblo County to a 9-4 win over Falcon High School for the Colorado Class 4A championship on Saturday at Air Force Academy’s Erdle Field. This time, the Hornets were in pole position, needing only one win. Eades’ promise was fulfilled; Swift took advantage of the second chance. The program’s breakthrough was all the more satisfying for it.

“It comes full circle today,” Eades said.

Swift’s only regret was that he couldn’t go the distance. He cruised into the seventh, safely under the 110-pitch limit, comfortable with a 9-1 lead. He wanted the complete game “pretty bad,” he said. But after letting a few batters get away from him, his pitch count had spiked. Eades had no choice but to go to his bullpen.

“When I went out to get him,” the coach said, “I just told him, ‘What a great career. Don’t worry. We’re gonna finish this for you.'”

A blowout started to inch toward anxious territory first. After the Falcons scored their third run of the inning on a two-out walk, they were one baserunner away from bringing the tying run to the plate. But the game ended on a strikeout looking. Swift’s final gem was preserved, even if the box score didn’t appear as pristine as his 1.34 season ERA through 14 games. He pitched 6 1/3 innings in the title-clinching win, striking out five while allowing three earned runs on six hits.

“Ever since he pitched that day (in 2024), we just knew he was gonna be our guy,” fellow senior Nick Hernandez said. “So it was nice to see him go out this way.”

Falcon tried to hammer Swift before he could settle in, swinging early in counts and making hard contact. The exit velocities and launch angles he allowed in the first inning would’ve portended disaster if those sorts of things were tracked in high school baseball. The first five batters of the game had Pueblo County’s outfielders chasing down tricky fly balls in the morning wind. A double off the wall. Two deep sacrifice flies. An error in left field on a drop near the track.

The Falcons only got one run out of it. They made Swift throw only 12 pitches.

“All you need to know about him is the way the game started,” Eades said. “Three rockets, and you couldn’t tell. He was the same guy that he is all the time.”

The deficit didn’t last long. With two outs in the top of the second, nine-hitter Elijah Tafoya fought off a full-count pitch out of play, then tripled off the right field wall to give Pueblo County the lead for good. Hernandez followed with a rope up the middle to score Tafoya.

The Hornets thrived all season by creating havoc on the base paths. On Saturday, they had Falcon kicking the ball all over the field. Two runners went first to third on errant pick-off attempts. Pueblo County capitalized on the second of those errors with an insurance run in the fourth. Again, it was the senior second baseman Hernandez delivering a two-out RBI single. He finished his 2-for-3 day with an RBI hit-by-pitch in the sixth, igniting a five-run frame to put the game out of reach.

“We definitely played our game,” Hernandez said. “We played clean. Relied on Blake to get us outs. Played good defense behind him and had his back.”

The Pueblo community had his back, too. About a week before their return to the state championship game, the Hornets’ catcher’s communication equipment broke, leaving them little time to order a replacement. Pueblo South coach Kevin Ortiz came out to Pueblo County’s graduation, according to Eades, and hooked the Hornets up with his team’s equipment.

“We’ve been rolling with it ever since,” Eades said. “… The city of Pueblo are champions today.”

Swift wasn’t at his absolute sharpest, but he was at his gutsiest. In the bottom of the fourth, he plunked back-to-back hitters to load the bases, warranting a mound visit. With the go-ahead run at the plate, he quickly got ahead 0-2 on the next batter, eventually inducing an inning-ending grounder to shortstop. Falcon left another two runners stranded in the fifth, when Pueblo County was still protecting a 4-1 lead.

It helped, he said afterward, to have experience on the same exact mound. Experience burning through innings when his team needed it on the biggest stage.

“El Caballo!” Eades shouted at Swift as the Hornets hoisted the trophy. The Horse. 

A nickname that could’ve applied to the senior hero or the sophomore upstart just the same.