PBR Colorado Game of the Day: Longmont defeats Windsor 7-3

LONGMONT – Even though the Windsor baseball moved up to Class 5A this season while Longmont remains in the 4A classification, the two clubs still schedule an annual nonconference game with one another.

 

It’s just good for both teams, which are perennial contenders for state titles, to play one another.  

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Longmont and Windsor reprised their quasi-rivalry and Longmont jumped out early by capitalizing on some wild pitching from Windsor to win, 7-3. Longmont and Windsor are now an even 5-5 against one another dating back to 2008.

 

“They just beat us in every phase of the game and they were just better than us today,” Windsor head coach Brad Deal said. “We didn’t do a very good job and we need to be better. They played well today, they did the things we didn’t do and we tip our hats to them. We like playing them because they’re well-coached every year and they’re good every year.

 

“Sometimes they win, sometimes we win. But at the end of the day we know playing them makes us better.”

 

Both teams scored a run in the first inning but Longmont pulled ahead for good in the second. The Trojans took advantage of three walks and a hit batter to score six runs in the frame. 

 

Once they had the lead, Longmont's pitchers didn’t give it back.

 

Trojans 2019 Leif Neusken started on the mound and struck out three batters over three innings after allowing a lone run on back-to-back hits in the first. 2020 Jack Ouweneel then held the lead in relief, allowing two runs over his two-inning turn. Debuting with the varsity club, 2021 John Vandiver pitched a scoreless sixth, and 2019 Brady Renck (Westmont College) finished out the game with a scoreless seventh.

 

Given the way an unusually high number of games have had to be rescheduled in Colorado because of inclement weather and other uncontrollable events has backloaded most teams’ schedules for the final several weeks of the regular season, Tuesday’s non-league contest was a good time for the Longmont staff to spread around the innings in a solid staff victory.

 

“This game was the game for those guys to pitch well,” Longmont head coach Tom Fobes said. “We’ve got a bunch of games coming up so we’re trying to set up our pitchers so they're all available the rest of the week. Even Brady, he’s so important to us defensively, but he said he wanted an inning so I said, ‘Go ahead.’”

 

Renck went 2-for-4 at the plate on Tuesday and is now slashing .600/.661/1.100 with a 1.761 OPS and team highs with 20 RBIs, 29 runs scored, five triples, three home runs and 16 stolen bases. 2019 Grant Rulon (.364/.540/.393) also went 2-for-4. 2021 Devon Nowells, who is tied for the team lead with 20 RBIs, 2019 Ryan James and 2021 Alec Northouse combined for Longmont’s other three this.  

 

Despite being ranked No. 3 in the PBR Colorado Power 25 Rankings and riding a 12-game win streak into Tuesday’s game, Windsor had a rough day on the mound. Three Wizards pitchers – 2019 Tanner Rogers, 2021 Trent Schumacher and 2019 Braden Martinez – walked or hit a combined eight batters, four of whom came around to score.

 

“I don’t really think you go us there looking for walks,” Renck said. “But if a guy’s a little wild, especially with our bottom of the order, we’re not going to go up there and swing at the first pitch. We’re going up there to see some pitchers. Once he started throwing balls in the second inning, he got out of rhythm and we were able to capitalize on that.”

 

Windsor 2019 AJ Hansen doubled twice and drove in pair of runs, and is now slashing .448/.467/.551 on the season. 2019 Logan Thornton also had two hits while 2019 Owen Lockner (Odessa JC), 2019 Braden Martinez and 2019 Isaac Morfin each had a hit.

 

Longmont will play a Northern League contest on the road at Thompson Valley (5-10, 3-5) on Thursday. Windsor will return to Tri-Valley League play when the Wizards host Erie (6-9, 3-6) on Thursday.

 

Longmont 7, Windsor 3

At Longmont H.S.

 

Windsor (12-2) 100 2000 0 — 3 7 0

Longmont (11-4) 160 000 0 — 7 7 1

 

W — Nuesken. L — Rogers.

 

Windsor hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) — Baessler 4-0-0-0, Martinez 4-0-1-0, Lockner 3-1-1-0, Morfin 3-0-1-1, Myatt 3-0-0-0, Thornton 3-1-2-0, Barker 3-0-0-0, Bonner 2-1-0-0, Hansen 2-0-2-2, Rogers 0-0-0-0, Schumacher 0-0-0-0. Totals 27-3-7-3. 2B — Hansen 2, Morfin.

 

Longmont hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) — Renck 4-1-2-0, Rulon 4-2-2-2, Nowells 3-1-1-0, Gumeson 2-1-0-0, Benes 2-1-0-1, Deeter 4-0-0-1, James 2-0-1-2, Northouse 2-1-1-0, Martinez 1-0-0-0, Nuesken 0-0-0-0, Ouweneel 0-0-0-0, Vandiver 0-0-0-0. Totals 24-7-7-7. SB — Gumeson.

 

Windsor pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Rogers 1.2-5-7-7-4-1, Schumacher 3.1-2-0-0-3-4, Martinez 1-0-0-0-0-3.

 

Longmont pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Nuesken 3-4-1-1-0-3, Ouweneeel 2-2-2-2-1-0, Vandiver 1-1-0-0-0-1, Renck 1-0-0-0-1-0.