PBR Colorado Game of the Day 4-20-19: Skyline Defeats Frederick 14-4

LONGMONT – This year’s Skyline baseball team is a slightly unusual blend of experienced players, young starters and a wide variety of multi-sport athletes.

 

Truth is, the Falcons are still waiting for all of those ingredients to coalesce and for their team to truly find its way.

 

Playing at home on Saturday, Skyline picked up a 14-4 win over conference rival Frederick. The win moved the Falcons (6-6, 4-4) back up to the .500 mark roughly midway through the season and, because of its come-from-behind nature, was a good sign that the Falcons are rounding into form at the right time.

 

“We have five sophomores and two freshmen who play a lot in our lineup, and three or four sophomores we send out there to pitch, so we’re young and we’re still putting it all together,” Skyline head coach Travis Schlagel said. “We’ve struggled some this season with playing up or playing down to our opponents versus just focusing on playing our game. We did a much better job of that today and that’s why we were able to win.”

 

Since returning to the Falcons’ lineup after missing six of the team’s first eight game, 2019 third baseman Juan Chaparro is batting .667 with five extra-base hits in four games and is currently riding a streak of nine hits in his last 12 at-bats.

 

Batting in the three-hole on Saturday, Chaparro went 3-for-4 at the plate.  

 

“It’s just been good practicing and doing stuff with the team,” said Chaparro, who is slashing .550/.591/.800 on the season. “I knew I had to come in hot to help out the team. So that’s what I’ve been trying to do: produce for the team and do my best. It’s just working for me right now and I’m having fun with my teammates.”

 

After Frederick (2-12, 0-8) jumped ahead 4-1 in the top of the second inning, Skyline batted around in the bottom of the fourth and scored nine runs on eight hits to pull back into the lead for good. Skyline added three more runs in the fifth and in the bottom of the sixth, Falcons center fielder 2021 Grayden Bridwell tripled and scored on a 2020 Braeden Elwood single to enact the 10-run mercy rule and end the game.

 

Bridwell is batting .368 and has scored a team-high 16 runs while batting in the leadoff spot.

 

Frederick 2020 Brandon Hornby, who is batting a team-leading .296 on the season, had two of Frederick’s five hits on Saturday. Also, with a slew of up-and-coming young players, the Frederick Warriors are in a similar situation to Skyline, only perhaps a year or two behind.

 

“We’re young and we’re still trying to figure it out here, halfway through,” Frederick head coach Blaine Shirley said. “We’re coming together better as a team so hopefully we can make this final push to try to get back on track for the rest of the season.”

 

Skyline will host Northridge on Tuesday. The Frederick Warriors, who have played four games in each of the past two weeks, won’t play again until they host Roosevelt on Thursday.

 

Skyline 14, Frederick 4

At Skyline H.S.

Frederick        040 000 0 — 4 5 4

Skyline             100 931 0 — 14 16 1

W — Hart. L — Bacca.

Frederick hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) — Hoffman 2-1-1-0, Hazlett 3-1-1-1, Formby 1-0-0-0, Dufour 3-0-0-0, Hornby 3-0-2-2, Gockley 3-0-0-0, Sanders 1-1-0-0, Weingart 3-0-0-0, Bacca 3-0-1-1, Wallace 0-1-0-0. Totals 22-4-5-4. 2B — Hazlett. SB — Hoffman.

Skyline hitting (ab-r-h-rbi) — Bridwell 4-3-2-1, Elwood 4-2-2-3, Chaparro 4-2-3-1, Wi. Drewes 4-2-3-3, NcGregor 4-2-2-1, Wy. Drewes 2-1-1-0, Hart 1-0-0-0, N. Chavez 2-0-0-1, Gutierrez 2-0-2-1, Stanich 1-1-0-0, P. Chavez 4-1-1-0, Helmstetter 0-0-0-0, Knudsvig 0-0-0-0. Totals 33-14-16-11. 2B — McGregor 2, Chaparrao, Wi. Drewes. 3B — Bridwell. SB — Bridwell 2, Wy. Drewes 2, P. Chavez, Wi. Drewes, McGregor.

Frederick pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Bacca 3.1-8-7-6-1-1, Hornby 2-8-7-4-2-2.

Skyline pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Hart 3.1-4-4-4-8-4, Chavez 2.2-1-0-0-0-3.