Rock Canyon Defeats Heritage 2-0

By John Cackowski
State Director

Highland Ranch - Yesterday the Heritage Eagles met the Rock Canyon Jaguars in a Continental League matchup of two of the top 5A teams in the state. The Jaguars would get the important league win as both teams are jockeying for the Continental League championship. 

The game featured two of the top arms in the state. The Eagles would send out New Mexico commit Jacob Hilton, and the Jaguars matched with Xavier commit Matt Givin. Both pitchers were dominant in the game but Givin would get the better of the two. 

The first 2 and a half innings were scoreless as both pitchers dominated the offense. In the bottom of the 3rd senior Michael Keen would single, then Hilton would get a fastball up on the outside on senior Colton Hill which would result in an opposite field HR giving the Jaguars a 2-0 nothing lead, and that is all they would need.

Givin, flashing an upper 80 fastball while mixing in a nasty slider with command would take it from there, and would carry a no-hitter into the 6th inning only to be broken up by a one-out single by Arkansas commit Casey Opitz (who was very impressive behind the dish on the day back-picking three Jaguar baserunners). Senior Riley Egloff would single with 2 outs to give the Eagles 1st and 2nd and their first threat of the game, but Givin would bear down and strike out Hilton to end the inning. 

When it really got interesting was the top of the 7th. Sophomore Gunnar Kozlowski would lead the inning off with a walk. Senior Tanner Milinkov would throw a scare into the game with a deep drive ball to center, but it would be caught for the 1st out of th. Senior Arian Jimenez would then single to put runners on first and second with 1 out. With the new pitch count rules into play, Head coach of Heritage Scott Horman would call time and confirm the pitch count with Head Coach Tyler Munro of Rock Canyon. It was determined that Givin had 2 more pitches left in the game. After getting the first strike on junior Trevor Young, Givin would have one last pitch and Young would hit into a 1-6-3 double play to end the game. 

The win for Rock Canyon improves their season record to  9-2 with a 1-1 record in league. Heritage drops to 7-4 on the season and 1-1 in league. Next up for Rock Canyon is an away game against Mountain Vista this Friday. Heritage will have an away game against Legend. 

Highlights:

Heritage
Jacob Hilton: CG, 5 H, 2 ER, 5 K's
Riley Egloff: 2-3
Casey Opitz: 1-3, 3 back picks behind dish.

Rock Canyon 
Matt Givin: CG, Shutout, 3 hits, 10 K's
Colton Hill: 2-3, HR, 2 RBI's.