COLORADO SPRINGS | A young, hungry Cherokee Trail baseball team had found a way to win games in a variety of ways during the 2015 season.
The 11th-seeded Cougars couldn’t find a way to beat Pine Creek without scoring a run Monday afternoon, as a 1-0 loss to the sixth-seeded Eagles in the District 8 championship game at Vista Ridge High School kept them out of the double-elimination Class 5A Championship Series.
Pine Creek moves on to the Championship Series, which will run Saturday and Sunday after the Colorado High School Activities Association had to push it back a day because of some weather-affected district tournaments that won’t be played until Wednesday, while coach Allan Dyer’s Cherokee Trail team finished its season 13-8 overall.
Like Smoky Hill on Saturday at the District 4 tournament in Fruita Monument (where the 21st-seeded Buffaloes upset 2014 state champion Rocky Mountain), the Cougars won their opener and lost in the championship game.
Pitching wasn’t a problem for Cherokee Trail, which saw sophomore Conner Nantkes and junior Jerome Bohannon both throw complete games and allow just two combined runs in 13 innings.
Nantkes’ 1-run effort over seven inning was plenty in the Cougars opening game, an 8-1 handling of No. 22 ThunderRidge, while Bohannon’s four-hitter over six innings came up short as Cherokee Trail managed just three hits of its own against Pine Creek junior ace Wade Council.
Rhett Baldry’s RBI single in the bottom of the third inning gave the Eagles the only run they needed for Council (6-1, 1.55 ERA), who worked out of a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth and extended a streak without allowing a run to 20 innings.
In the opener, junior catcher Travis Henry homered and drove in three runs for the Cougars, while junior Matt Meraz doubled, triple and drove home a run and Nantkes helped himself with a pair of hits in 4 at-bats with 2 RBI.
Against Pine Creek, Nantkes doubled and Meraz and sophomore Nick Perez were credited with base hits, but Cherokee Trail couldn’t push a run across the plate as it was shut out for only the third time in 21 games this season.
Notes: Pine Creek joins 28th-seeded Chatfield, which topped Smoky Hill 12-1 in six innings on Saturday, as the first two members of the eight-team 5A Championship Series. Four of the remaining six slots will be filled on Tuesday (Districts 1, 2, 5 & 6), while the last two will be decided on Wednesday in Districts No. 3 & 7.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
CLASS 5A DISTRICT 8 BASEBALL TOURNAMENT (at Vista Ridge H.S.)
Cherokee Trail 8, ThunderRidge 1
Score by innings (r-h-e):
ThunderRidge 010 000 0 — 1 9 2
Cherokee Trail 107 000 x — 8 10 0
WP — Cherokee Trail: Conner Nantkes (7 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K); Cherokee Trail hitting: Travis Lynch, 1-2, HR, 3 RBI, run; Matt Meraz 2-3, 2B, 3B, RBI, run; Conner Nantkes 2-4, 2 RBI; Eric Cox 2-3, 2B, 2 runs
Championship game: Pine Creek 1, Cherokee Trail 0
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Cher. Trail 000 000 0 — 0 3 0
Pine Creek 001 000 x — 1 4 1
LP — Cherokee Trail: Jerome Bohannon (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K); Cherokee Trail hitting: Conner Nantkes 1-3, 2B; Matt Meraz 1-3; Nick Perez 1-3
(Pine Creek advances to 5A Championship Series)
