LAKEWOOD | Two crooked numbers — one of them a nine-spot — was enough to get the Grandview baseball team off to a good start on the opening day of the Class 5A Baseball Championship Series.
Against an eighth-seeded Prairie View team that features a quality pitching staff, the 16th-seeded Wolves scored in just two innings Friday afternoon at All-Star Park, but a four-run rally in the third inning and a nine-run outburst in the seventh led to a 13-5 victory.
Junior Jax Pfister hit a grand slam, while junior Chase Chapman tripled and drove in three runs and senior Tony Crow had a pair of hits and two RBI to lead the way for Grandview, which advanced to an immediate matchup with fifth-seeded Cherry Creek, which defeated 13th-seeded Chaparral 8-0 in the first game of the day.
Pfister went head-to-head with ThunderHawks’ starter Jerry Stone over five innings, after which the teams were tied at 4-4. Stone pitched one more inning and Prairie View had a chance to go ahead in the sixth, but senior Ben Crandall came on and got out of a bases-loaded situation for Grandview to keep the game tied.
The Wolves tagged Prairie View reliever Travis Teague for nine runs in the seventh and Crandall closed out the game after giving up one run in the bottom of the frame.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2024 CLASS 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
(16) GRANDVIEW 13, (8) PRAIRIE VIEW 5
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Prairie View 202 000 1 — 5 7 1
Grandview 004 000 9 — 13 10 2
WP — Grandview: Ben Crandall (1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K). LP — Prairie View: Travis Teague (1 IP, 4 H, 9 R, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K). Grandview hitting: Jax Pfister 2-2, HR, 4 RBI, 2 runs; Chase Chapman 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI, run; Tony Crow 2-4, 2 RBI, run; Tucker Smock 1-3, run; Easton Flores 1-4, RBI, 2 runs; Collin May 1-4, RBI; AJ Maroni 1-4, 2 runs. Prairie View hitting: Giovanni Tarin 2-3, 3B, run; Wyatt Waterhouse 2-4, 3B, RBI, run; Jerry Stone 1-3, 2B, RBI; Javi Gaeta 1-3, RBI; Brock Lopez 1-3; Favi Gaeta and Noah Hernandez RBI
