AURORA | A rare meeting of Class 5A powerhouse baseball programs in the district round of the playoffs went Cherry Creek’s way May 14.
Because of a rare fourth place finish in the Centennial League standings, the Bruins received the 18th seed in the 32-team district field and ended up in the District 5 tournament along with the host and second-seeded Raiders.
The teams both handled their first round opponents — coach Matt Darr’s Regis Jesuit team riding a complete game, 13-strikeout effort from senior Bo Weiss to beat No. 31 Palmer and Cherry Creek dominating No. 15 Grand Junction 11-0 — to set up a showdown for a berth in the 5A Championship Series.
The matchup turned out to be one-sided, however, as the Continental League champion Raiders struggled defensively with senior Travis Marr on the mound and watched the Bruins run wild on the bases and take advantage of every miscue.
While Cherry Creek joined three other Centennial League teams — Aurora’s Cherokee Trail and Grandview, plus Mullen — in the Championship Series, Regis Jesuit saw its outstanding season end at 16-5. The Raiders fell short of making the Championship Series for just the second time in the past seven seasons.
Senior outfielder Quin Cotton mustered the only two hits of the game for Regis Jesuit, which got shut out for the first time all season on the combined efforts of Cherry Creek’s Carter Van Gytenbeek and Nate Sweeney.
Eight of the Bruins’ nine hitters had at least one base hit against Marr and reliever Caleb Sloan and Cherry Creek racked up 11 stolen bases in all as they put the pressure on the Raiders’ defense every time they reached base.
In the opener, Weiss was in command for Regis Jesuit, while Cotton broke the game open with a three-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning to score Nick Spiliotis, Ryan Vottiero and Jimmy Holinger.
Vottiero had an RBI single and Holinger added a sacrifice fly in the third inning for the Raiders.
Full Class 5A district baseball tournament results, here.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
CLASS 5A DISTRICT 5 BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
May 14 at Regis Jesuit High School
Championship game
(18) CHERRY CREEK 11, (2) REGIS JESUIT 0 (6 inn.)
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Cherry Creek 143 012 — 11 15 2
Regis Jesuit 000 000 — 0 2 2
LP — Regis Jesuit: Travis Marr (2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K). Regis Jesuit hitting: Quin Cotton 2-2
First round
(2) REGIS JESUIT 5, (31) PALMER 2
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Palmer 000 011 0 — 2 5 2
Regis Jesuit 002 030 x — 5 5 1
WP — Regis Jesuit: Bo Weiss (7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 13 K). Regis Jesuit hitting: Quin Cotton 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Nick Spiliotis 1-3, 2 runs; Ryan Vottiero 1-2, RBI, run; Jimmy Holinger 0-2, RBI, run; Travis Marr 1-3; Brendan Boylan 0-0, run