DENVER | The matchup the Regis Jesuit baseball team has been looking for is finally here and the stakes (currently) couldn’t be much higher.
The third-seeded Raiders and top-seeded Arvada West both won two games Friday on the opening day of the Class 5A Baseball Championship Series to set up a collision Saturday afternoon at All-Star Park for a berth in next weekend’s state championship game.
The Wildcats dispatched fourth-seeded Pine Creek 9-2 in their second contest of the day to move into the 2:30 p.m. championship semifinal and then were joined by the third-seeded Raiders, who handled seventh-seeded Legend 8-3 at All-City Stadium.
“They’re great, but I don’t know if they’ve really been tested,” Regis Jesuit coach Matt Darr said of Arvada West. “We’re going to give them a test and see how good they are.”
Regis Jesuit (21-6) has played for the state championship in each of the past two seasons and lost both times to Cherry Creek, which did not make the Championship Series this time. The Raiders can assure themselves of a berth in this season’s May 30 championship with a victory in a 2:30 p.m. contest against Arvada West (24-3).
A loss still wouldn’t prevent Regis Jesuit from winning the title, but it would have to win a May 29 semifinal against the winner of a preceding elimination game and then turn around the next day and have to beat Arvada West twice.
“We want Huddy (ace Hudson Alpert) in game one of the championship, we don’t want to have to play three,” junior Brady Wright said. “We’re going to go as hard as we can. We’ve been wanting to play A-West all season, now it’s up and them at the top of the bracket.”
To set up the meeting with Arvada West, Regis Jesuit had to get by two tests of its own on the opening day of the tournament. After getting past No. 6 Mountain Vista (see story, here), the Raiders came up against Legend, which came into the tournament hot after defeating Rocky Mountain and Cherry Creek in regional play.
Regis Jesuit looked more settled after securing its opening win and reached Titans starter Gavin Hasche for three runs in the opening frame.
Senior Chase Massey — the second batter in the top of the first inning — homered to put the Raiders in the lead and Wright delivered a two-out double to drive in senior Deion Cesario-Scott and Alpert (who each had come up with base hits).
“That felt great,” Wright said of his key hit. “I struggled in the first game a little bit (0-for-3), but I had teammates coming up to me between games and saying ‘trust yourself, know who you are.’ That really helped me be calm.”
The Raiders added another run (and chased Hasche in the process) when senior Carter Rathbun led off with a triple and scored on a single by senior leadoff hitter Jacob Olson that just made it over the glove of leaping Legend shortstop Jacob Fladebo.
Olson stole second and went to third on an overthrow, but was stranded there when reliever Tyler Houston struck out three straight Raiders to end the frame.
The Titans finally made inroads against junior starting pitcher Cade Filleman in the third inning, when Fladebo drove in a run and another scored on a wild pitch. Legend got within a run in the fifth inning when reliever Finn Judge put two runners aboard and Colton Brush delivered a run-scoring single on the first pitch from another reliever, Ezra Christ.
Then came a much-needed big swing from Cesario-Scott, who had homered in the first game and did so again — this time on a 3-2 pitch from Houston — to get the lead back to two runs at 5-3 after five innings.
“Deion’s home runs matter on the scoreboard, but maybe more emotionally,” Darr said. “Especially teetering in a game like that, feeling like they might take over, then he hits the bomb and it just makes it so you can breathe again. As a pitching, you don’t have to be perfect and a two-run cushion feels way different.”
Added Cesario-Scott: “(Houston’s) a great pitcher, I was just ready for the fastball. He threw a slider earlier that I was able to foul off and work my way back (to 3-2). I was just sitting on a fastball and that’s what I got.”
The two-run cushion expanded to five by the end of the bottom of the sixth inning when Rathbun singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch, while an intentional walk to Cesario-Scott to load the bases backfired when Alpert rifled a two-run single to the outfield.
Christ worked out of slight trouble in the sixth and retired the side in order in the seventh inning on three balls that never left the infield to close it out.
“There were a lot of things we could do better after today, so we’re going to go have fun tomorrow,” Cesario-Scott said.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2026 CLASS 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
May 22 at All-City Stadium
(3) REGIS JESUIT 8, (7) LEGEND 3
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Legend 002 010 0 — 3 4 x
Regis Jesuit 310 013 x — 8 12 x
LEGEND (ab-r-h-rbi)
Silas Meuli cf 3-0-0-0, Luke Eckmann 2b 2-0-0-0, Brady Houston ph 2-1-1-0, Jacob Fladebo ss 3-0-1-1, Colton Brush c 3-0-1-0, Colten Smith dh 1-0-0-0, Nolan Brown dh 2-0-0-0, Carson Reffel rf 2-0-1-0, Jacob Combest 3b 1-0-0-0, Talan Borcherding 1b 2-1-0-0, Braxton Simington lf 2-0-0-0. Totals 23-3-4-1. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Gavin Hasche (L, 1-5-4-4-1-1), Tyler Houston (4 2/3-8-4-4-2-7), Griffin Glen (1/3-0-0-0-0-0)
REGIS JESUIT (ab-r-h-rbi)
Jacob Olson cf 4-1-1-1, Chase Massey ss 4-1-1-1, Deion Cesario-Scott 1b 3-3-2-1, Hudson Alpert 2b 4-1-2-2, Eli Shappee dh 4-0-2-0, Alex Hughes pr 0-0-0-0, Brady Wright 3b 3-0-1-2, Luke Hoffman pr 0-0-0-0, Greyson Glasheen rf 2-0-0-0, Jack Manthey c 3-0-1-0, AJ Reed pr 0-0-0-0, Carter Rathbun 3-2-2-0. Totals 30-8-12-7. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Cade Filleman (W, 4-1-2-2-3-5), Finn Judge (2/3-1-1-1-1-0), Ezra Christ (2 1/3-2-0-0-1-0)
2B — Regis Jesuit: Hudson Alpert, Eli Shappee, Brady Wright. 3B — Regis Jesuit: Carter Rathbun. HR — Regis Jesuit: Chase Massey (solo in 1st inning), Deion Cesario-Scott (solo in 5th inning)
