5A Final Four Friday Spotlight

Follow pbr_co on Twitter and Vine
Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pbrcolorado



By John Cackowski
State Director

Both the 5A games provided as much excitement today as High School Baseball could bring to the table, and also proved why Colorado is making noise across the country as a place where colleges, and scouts are taking notice. 

In the two 5A games today, over 20 players have committed to the following colleges that played today, and sure to be more to follow:

Oregon State 
Oregon 
Rice
A.S.U. 
Creighton
New Mexico
Pacific
Washington State
Dartmouth
Air Force
University of Northern Colorado
Metro State
Whitworth
Aurora University
Crowder College
Chandler-Gilbert
Grand Canyon CC
Garden City CC

That a pretty impressive list and nice representation for the state in prep baseball. 



Rocky Mountain vs. Cherry Creek

Rocky came out quick in this game taking a 4-0 lead in the first backed by a 2-run home run by strong looking junior Garrett Hammer. Rocky had lefty pitcher and Dartmouth commit Marc Bachman on the mound. Mixing speeds with a fastball that touched 84 he only made one mistake. In the the top of the 3rd on an 0-2 count with 2 outs to senior and Creighton commit Grant Farrell, a pitch-out was called, but Bachman got too much of the plate. Farrell was able to drive the ball to deep right field scoring senior Sean Robinson. Senior Matt Rindal would single Farrell home on the next at-bat and Creek was right back in the game. 

Creek's pitcher and senior Cody Wood after a rough start started to settle in. Sitting mostly around 83 mph, Wood would not give up another run the next three innings. In the top of the 4th senior Jake Gillett drove a ball to deep right. The ball, junior Cole Anderson, and Anderson's back all hit the wall at the same time. Anderson could not come up with a great play, leaving Gillett with a 2B and scoring senior Jack Hallmark to tie the game. Gillett would advance to 3rd on a wild pitch, and then Aeneas Roberson would squeeze Gillett in to take a 5-4 lead. Rocky Mountain would come right back in the bottom of the 5th with a solo home run from the state's home run leader, senior and New Mexico commit Carl Stajduhar. Creek Senior pitcher Justin Jeronimus would come in to relieve Wood. After singles by seniors Tyler Stevens and Trevor Thomas, it looked like Creek would get out of the inning tied 5-5. Jeronimus would make a great play on the mound stealing on what looked like a go ahead single by senior Nathan Elsheimer. After the snag Jeronimus would run the ball over to throw to first but over-threw the first baseman and Rocky would score two more runs to go up 7-5.

Creek would not give up. In the top of the 6th Gillett would get another hit, and after a sac and a wild pitch later, junior Blake Goldsberry would get a sac fly scoring Gillett to cut the lead to 7-6. Rocky would get a huge insurance run in the bottom of the 6th from an RBI single from Tyler Stevens scoring senior Zach Hahn. Creek would get a rally going in the top of the 7th getting runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, but senior Cory Richer for Rocky Mountain and University of Northern Colorado Commit would get Creek to line into double play on a hit and run to end the game.Creek would not give up. In the top of the 6th Gillett would get another hit, and after a sac and a wild pitch later, junior Blake Goldsberry would get a sac fly scoring Gillett to cut the lead to 7-6. Rocky would get a huge insurance run in the bottom of the 6th from an RBI single from Tyler Stevens scoring senior Zach Hahn. Creek would get a rally going in the top of the 7th getting runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, but senior Cory Richer for Rocky Mountain and University of Northern Colorado Commit would get Creek to line into double play on a hit and run to end the game. 



Regis vs Mountain Vista

The guns were out for this game. If you like high school baseball this was a great opportunity to catch two Division 1, and no doubt future 2014 draft picks match up against each other, Regis Senior and Oregon commit David Peterson and Mountain Vista senior and Washington State commit Nick Leonard did not disappoint. The game was pretty much what you expected. Mountain Vista could only muster 4 hits off Peterson; Regis would get 5 hits off Leonard. Peterson would get 10 ks pumping upper 80's fastballs touching 90 a few times, and Leonard would pretty much match with 7 ks touching 91 and 92 early in the game.

Regis would score in the bottom of the first in what at the time was a little foreshadowing. Leonard with two outs would walk senior and Oregon State commit Max George and senior and Pacific commit Justin Thaxton to set the table for a big rbi single from senior and Arizona State commit Reagan Todd to go up 1-0. 

The game went into pitchers duel mode from there, however Leonard did show some moxie getting out of jams in the bottom of the 2nd with Regis stranding two runners, and a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the 5th. 

In between the 2nd and 5th, Peterson hit what looked like little wall in the 4th, and gave up 2 of his 4 hits allowed, and Mountain Vista had the bases loaded with only one out. Peterson would induce a 5-3 FC to home, but then walked senior Dalton Lewis to tie the game.

Both pitchers would gut it out the rest of the way continuing to use their entire arsenal Peterson throwing 118 pitches, and Leonard throwing 110. 

In the top of the 7th it didn't look like Peterson was going to be able to finish, but after a mound conference with Coach Matt Darr he was able to dig deep and get his 10th k of the game leaving runners on first and 2nd.

In the bottom of the 7th Leonard still looked like he was cruising, and the game looked destined for extras as he got the first two outs in 6 pitches. With 2 outs Regis senior Brooks Urich drove the ball to the right center field gap. In a perfect relay to third Urich looked out by 5 feet but on the slide he somehow jarred the ball loose on the tag from senior 3B Brian Froechtenigt. With a runner on third with 2 out, the Golden Eagles chose to intentionally walk Max George, and Justin Thaxton. Just like in the first inning, after two 2-out walks to George and Thaxton Leonard would face Todd again, but this time it would not be a single. On the first pitch Todd with obvious incentive drove the ball over the right center field fence for a walk-off grand slam for a memory of a lifetime. 


Rocky is now 20-5 on the season and will again play in the 5A state Championship game for the 6th time in the last 8 years, and will have to be beat twice by Regis. They have Stevens and Stajduhar lined up to throw. But they will face a Regis team now 21-4 who will not be intimidated by the challenge tomorrow with their own history of consistently being a final four team over the last 8 years, winning a state championship in 2011.