DENVER | Dean Adams didn’t know exactly how his Grandview baseball team managed to win twice May 17, but the retiring coach sure enjoyed the ride that will continue into next week.
The Wolves faced dire circumstances in both of their Class 5A Championship Series games at All-City Field, but managed to win both to make the Final Four of the double-elimination tournament.
Grandview eliminated Regis Jesuit with a 9-4 victory in an all-Aurora elimination game, which put Adams’ team into the final group of four that will decide the 5A state title May 22-23 if weather permits. Chatfield, which started its season 1-8, emerged from the first weekend of play at 3-0, while Grandview, its next opponent — Mountain Vista — and Rock Canyon all went 2-1.
“Wow, we just came out and competed like crazy,” said Adams, who was glad his ailing father could be in the stands to watch his team advance.
“I’m just real proud of them,” he added. “We met this morning to hit and I said ‘Hey, let’s come back and make sure we get to sit in this clubhouse one more time,’ and now we will be.”
The Wolves (15-9) play Mountain Vista at noon May 22 at All-City Field if weather holds. The winner of that game advances to a 10 a.m. May 23 game against Chatfield or Rock Canyon. Should Chatfield beat Rock Canyon, the Grandview/Mountain Vista winner would need to beat the Chargers twice to win the title.
Grandview played with its back against the wall May 17 after it suffered a 4-1 loss to Centennial League rival Cherry Creek in its opener. Monarch first tried to eliminate the Wolves, taking several leads, but Grandview managed to reel them in time and time again.
Trailing 6-5 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Wolves scored the tying run on a walk and got a 7-6 walk-off victory when Monarch’s Blake Rohm hit Tyler Smith with a pitch to force home the winning run.
“We came out a little flat in the first game, but all of a sudden we picked it up and played good baseball,” Adams said.
Against Regis Jesuit — which came in off an agonizing 11-10 loss to Mountain Vista the previous day in which the Golden Eagles scored 10 times in the last two innings to win — the Wolves trailed 1-0 after five innings with Bo Weiss throwing a strong game for the Raiders.
Grandview’s bats came alive in the top of the sixth inning, as the Wolves finally knocked out Weiss, who struck out 10 hitters in 5 1/3 innings. Grandview got into Regis Jesuit’s taxed bullpen for an eight-run rally — which included Morgan Smith’s three-run home run — to break the game open.
“I’ve never had two games like that, it was definitely crazy,” Smith said. “Coach Adams said as soon as we got into the playoffs that he believed we were going to make a run, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re living until next week and hope to get it done.”
Coach Matt Darr’s Regis Jesuit team, which lost in the 5A state championship game on the same field last season, scratched across three runs in the final two innings, but couldn’t come all the way back.
A more improbable member of the Championship Series after graduation turned over most of the roster, the Raiders finished the season 12-12.
“Each year, there’s such a slight difference between having success and not,” Darr said. “There are a lot of good things that come out of this year. We struggled early with lack of experience, but that won’t be an excuse next year. A lot of these guys have played in some very tense moments, so that serves you well down the road.”
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
GRANDVIEW 9, REGIS JESUIT 4
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Grandview 000 008 1 — 9 10 1
Regis Jesuit 010 002 1 — 4 10 1
GRANDVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Carter Boswell 3-1-1-2, Chase McLaran 2-0-1-1, Travis Parker 2-0-0-0, Ben Marshall 3-0-0-0, Nick Brown 3-1-2-1, Eric Mingus 4-1-2-1, Tyler Smith 2-1-1-0, Morgan Smith 4-1-2-3, Keifer Glau 5-1-1-0, Peyton Taylor 0-2-0-0. Totals 28-8-10-8. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Cade Crader (W, 5 1/3-9-3-2-2-3), John Cole (2/3-0-0-0-3-2), Tyler Smith (1 1/3-0-0-0-0-1).
REGIS JESUIT (ab-r-h-rbi)
Ryan Vottiero 3-0-2-1, Trevor Doerr 4-0-1-0, Jeffrey Landes 0-1-0-0, Matt Schmidt 4-0-2-2, Aidan Cameron 2-1-1-0, Travis Marr 3-1-1-0, Quin Cotton 3-0-1-0, Thomas Jahde 3-0-1-0, Austin Chouinard 3-1-1-0, Jimmy Holinger 3-0-0-0. Totals 28-4-10-3. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Bo Weiss (L, 5 1/3-4-2-2-1-10), Wesley Stark (0-4-5-5-1-0), Caleb Sloan (2/3-2-2-0-3-1), Anthony Gerken (1-0-0-0-0-2).
2B — Grandview (2): Carter Boswell, Tyler Smith; Regis Jesuit: Quin Cotton. 3B — Grandview: Eric Mingus; Regis Jesuit: Matt Schmidt. HR — Grandview: Morgan Smith (2 on in 6th).
GRANDVIEW 7, MONARCH 6 (8 inn.)
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Monarch 010 121 01 — 6 10 2
Grandview 100 031 02 — 7 6 5
GRANDVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Carter Boswell 3-0-0-0, Riley Springs 2-0-0-0, Tyler O’Dorisio 1-0-0-0, Chase McLaran 3-0-0-0, Travis Parker 1-2-1-0, Ben Marshall 2-0-0-0, Nick Brown 3-1-0-0, Eric Mingus 3-1-2-3, Tyler Smith 4-0-3-3, Morgan Smith 1-1-0-0, Keifer Glau 3-2-0-0. Totals 26-7-6-6. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Grant Schroeder (4-4-4-1-3-4), Coley Hakes (W, 4-6-2-2-0-3).
2B — Grandview: Eric Mingus 2, Tyler Smith.
Full 5A Baseball Championship Series scoreboard, here.