Brad Cochi From the Colorado Dugout: Pueblo West vs Fort Morgan

By Brad Cochi
Northern Colorado Senior Writer

COLORADO SPRINGS – Well, the Pueblo West boys are nothing if not exciting.

The No. 1 overall seed was the talk of the Class 4A state tournament’s opening day on Friday, but not for the expected reason of dominating opposing teams. The Pueblo West Cyclones instead treated the crowd at UCHealth Park to a show of resilience and a flair for come-from-behind drama.

Just hours after scoring nine runs in the seventh inning to beat Erie in the first round, the Cyclones came from behind twice with back-to-back three-run innings and finally defeated Fort Morgan with an 8-7 walk-off in the eighth.

“We knew coming in it was going to be a dogfight and we knew we’d have to be resilient,” said Pueblo West 2019 Tyler Declusin, who was the hero on Friday. “We didn’t give up ever. We realize the one seed is just a number and every team is here for a reason so every game is going to be a battle. We’ll take it. We’d much rather have it be 10-0 after five innings but walk-offs are fun too.”

After Fort Morgan (18-9) rallied for two runs to a take a 5-2 lead in the top of the seventh, the Cyclones (25-2) responded with a rally of their own against Mustangs 2021 Mateo Salcido, who started and threw seven innings against Golden in the previous game. With Salcido on a 29-pitch limit and trying to close out the game against the 2018 runners-up, Declusin hit a two-run triple and then scored the tying run on an infield hit from 2019 teammate Jayden Cordova.

Declusin was already making his case but it appeared for a while as though Fort Morgan 2020 Jacob Ortega would be the hero.

With a runner on third in the top of the eighth, Pueblo West intentionally walked leadoff hitter 2019 JP Hamer (.410/.539/.833) to face Ortega with two outs. The junior, who started the game on the mound, smashed a two-run double over the left fielder’s head to give the Mustangs a two-run lead for the second time in as many innings.

But in the bottom of the eighth, Salcido was lifted with two outs and runners on second and third. Ortega reentered on the mound and was greeted by a two-run single from Pueblo West’s 2019 shortstop Kyle Jameson and then Declusin hit a hard line drive down the third-base line to score Jameson from first and walk it off.

Now the Cyclones, who remain unbeaten through their first two games of the double-elimination tournament, will turn their attention to the other unbeaten team in Silver Creek. The two teams will face one another at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at UCHealth Park.

“Some young dudes are going to have to be ready and I know they’re going to step up to the challenge,” Declusin said. “We threw our top two today and we got two wins, so we’ll just come back tomorrow and keep it going.” 

Silver Creek defeated Cheyenne Mountain and Holy Family in the first two rounds.

Pueblo West 8, Fort Morgan 7 (8)

At UCHealth Park

Fort Morgan (18-9) 200 010 22 – 7 11 3

Pueblo West (25-2) 200 000 33 – 8 12 0

W – Davis. L – Ortega.

Fort Morgan hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) – Hamer 4-3-2-0, J. Ortega 4-1-2-2, Linker 5-2-2-2, Norris 2-0-1-1, Salcido 3-0-1-2, Baquera 4-0-1-0, Beltran 3-1-1-0, Fajardo 4-0-1-0, Apple 4-0-0-0, Shaver 0-0-0-0, Langford 0-0-0-0, A. Ortega 0-0-0-0. Totals 33-7-11-7. 2B – J. Ortega. 3B – Hamer, Linker. SB – Norris.

Pueblo West hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) – Jameson 4-3-3-2, Declusin 5-1-3-3, Cordova 3-1-2-1, Blackford 2-0-0-1, Mason 4-0-1-0, Barth 4-0-1-0, Dionisio 4-0-2-0, Tate 3-0-0-0, Gist 2-2-0-0, Stiner 0-0-0-0, Rudd 0-1-0-0, Denniston 0-0-0-0, Davis 0-0-0-0. Totals 31-8-12-7. 2B – Declusin, Cordova, Jameson. 3B –Declusin. SB – Cordova 2.

Fort Morgan pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) – Ortega 6-9-5-4-3-1, Salcido 1.2-3-3-3-1-0.

Pueblo West hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) – Denniston 7-10-5-5-3-4, Davis 1-1-2-2-2-0.