AURORA | Cherry Creek seems to have Grandview’s number on the baseball diamond recently, but the Wolves can’t wait for another shot at the Bruins.
Cherry Creek finished off a season sweep of Grandview with a 5-2 victory on Saturday afternoon at Grandview High School in a battle of the Centennial League’s top two teams.
The Bruins (17-1) finished 14-0 in league play, while the Wolves dropped to 15-3 overall and 10-3 in Centennial League. Both teams are likely to be at home for the upcoming district round of the Class 5A state tournament.
Senior shortstop Jake Thurston doubled and scored both of the runs for Grandview, which managed just three hits off Bruins starter Dimitri Casas and reliever Cody Wood. Reece Weber and Josh Huntley drove in runs for the Wolves.
Spencer Johnson pitched seven innings for Grandview — the senior right-hander’s third complete game of the season — and allowed 11 hits and five earned runs.
Coach Dean Adams’ Wolves came out determined to avenge a 7-6 walkoff loss to the Bruins in their season opener on March 28 — plus a walk-off loss to them in the 5A baseball championship series last year — but it was Cherry Creek that started fast.
Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 first inning, then allowed a base hit to Derik Beauprez to open the second inning. He managed to strike out Matt Rindal after a nine-pitch at-bat, but struggled with his command for the rest of the inning.
Grant Ferrell drew a walk to put two aboard and Ethan Kang singled home Beauprez, with Jack Hallmark’s hot-shot base hit off the glove of third baseman Eric Mingus loaded the bases.
Johnson forced home a run with a five-pitch walk to Ryan Robb, then leadoff hitter Dyllin Mucha dropped down a bases loaded bunt and beat it out for an RBI. Lane Milligan drove in Hallmark with a sacrifice fly to cap the inning.
The Wolves finally got something going offensively in the bottom of the fourth inning after Casas retired them on three pitches in the first inning and five pitches in the third.
Thurston doubled and Weber followed with a single that chased him home. Weber moved up to second on the throw, but Rory Stewart popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt and Casas struck out Huntley and Chris Browne to end the inning.
Grandview cut its deficit in half in the sixth inning when Casas began to tire. He walked Thurston, Weber and Stewart consecutively to load the bases and then issued another base on balls to Huntley to force home a run.
The Wolves missed their chance to get back in the game, however, as Wood came on and struck out Browne looking before Chris Magoon flied out to center field to end the inning.
Cherry Creek tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Milligan doubled, tagged up and moved to third on Griffin Jax’ fly ball to right field and scored when Beauprez popped up a suicide squeeze bunt that landed over the heads of two charging Grandview infielders.
Notes: Grandview finishes up the season with a Centennial League home contest at 4:15 p.m. May 7 against Eaglecrest. Cherry Creek goes against another of Aurora’s best teams, Regis Jesuit, in a non-league contest on May 7.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
CHERRY CREEK 5, GRANDVIEW 2
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Cherry Creek 040 000 1 — 5 11 0
Grandview 000 101 0 — 2 3 0
CHERRY CREEK (ab-r-h-rbi)
Dyllin Mucha cf 4-0-2-1, Lane Milligan c 3-1-2-1, Griffin Jax dh 4-0-0-0, Derik Beauprez 1b 4-1-3-1, Matt Rindal 3b 2-0-0-0, Grant Ferrell ss 3-1-0-0, Ethan Kang rf 3-1-1-1, Jack Hallmark lf 3-1-2-0, Ryan Robb 2b 2-0-1-1. Totals 28-5-11-5. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-s0): Dimitri Casas (W, 5 1/3-2-2-2-7-5), Cody Wood (Save, 1 2/3-2-0-0-0-2)
GRANDVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Eric Mingus 3b 4-0-1-0, Jake Thurston 3-2-1-0, Reece Weber cf 2-0-1-0, Rory Stewart 1b 2-0-0-0, Josh Huntley 1-0-0-1, Josh Sundine pr 0-0-0-0, Chris Browne 3-0-0-0, Chris Magoon lf 3-0-0-0, Brooks Adams 2b 3-0-0-0, Trevor Minner rf 3-0-0-0. Totals 24-2-3-1. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-s0): Spencer Johnson (L, 7-11-5-5-2-1).
2B — Cherry Creek: Lane Milligan; Grandview: Jake Thurston.
