DENVER | The Class 5A Baseball Championship Series that seemed like it would never end because of weather delays finally came to a disappointingly too-soon conclusion for Grandview Tuesday.
Nine days after coach Dean Adams’ team staved off ouster from the double-elimination tournament on two occasions, the Wolves finally got knocked out with a 5-4 loss to Mountain Vista at All-City Field.
Three outs from victory with a one-run lead, Grandview surrendered a tying run to the Golden Eagles in the bottom of the seventh inning and saw them win it on a walk-off with a bases loaded drive by Brandon Formby in the bottom of the eighth.
“It was a great baseball game and both teams played extremely hard, which is the way it should be at this level,” said Adams, who had Grandview in the final four of the Championship Series for the second time in the past three seasons.
“We had a great group of kids and I’m so proud of them with where we started and being an inning away from going to the championship,” he added. “We stuck together and came a long way. Losing in the Final Four is tough, but we had our chances.”
Mountain Vista advanced play Rock Canyon at noon Wednesday. The Jaguars defeated Chatfield 7-6 on Tuesday and will await the Mountain Vista-Rock Canyon winner in a 2:30 p.m. contest for the 5A state championship.
The Wolves — seeded No. 25 overall among 32 teams that made the 5A playoffs — ended Adams’ final season as skipper at 15-10 overall, but very nearly extended the season all the way to the final day.
Trailing 3-1 going into the top of the sixth inning, Grandview struck for three runs to take a 4-3 lead.
The Wolves’ magic inning in its previous game against Regis Jesuit was the sixth inning when they scored eight times to rally from behind and they rallied in the same inning against Mountain Vista Marc Mumper.
Ben Marshall and Eric Mingus singled back-to-back to open the frame and after Tyler Smith’s bunt attempt was caught, Nick Brown delivered a double to the gap in left center field that brought home both runners to tie the score. Chase McLaran’s single to right field drove in Brown with the go-ahead run.
“This postseason, we didn’t ever surrender, it was always the next guy up and we all wanted to do it for our teammates,” Brown said. “T-Smith had a pop-up bunt before I came up and I just wanted to pick him up and get us back on track. It felt good to tie it up at that point in the game.”
Adams sent junior starting pitcher Grant Schroeder back to the mound in the bottom of the seventh as Schroeder had appeared to find his groove after his fielding and throwing error contributed to the Golden Eagles’ two-run rally in the fifth inning.
Nine-hole hitter Tyler Stromberg, who hadn’t hit the ball out of the infield in his first two at-bats, dumped a single to left field to open the bottom of the seventh inning for Mountain Vista, got pushed to second on a walk to Formby and to third on Zach Paschke’s sacrifice bunt. The Wolves elected to intentionally walk Mumper to fill the open base at first and Schroeder got Will Dixon to fly out to right field, though Stromberg scored just ahead of the throw from Grandview’s Carter Boswell.
A fly ball to right ended the inning and sent the game to extra innings.
While Grandview went down 1-2-3 against Mountain Vista reliever Jalen Saiz in the eight, the Golden Eagles got a leadoff single by Cooper Shearon against Schroeder, who followed that by walking Saiz. After the Wolves turned to Coley Hakes in relief, John Krysa sacrificed the two runners over and Stromberg was intentionally walked to again load the bases with one out.
Formby wasted no time, driving Hakes’ first pitch just over Marshall’s head in left field to push home the winning run.
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 BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
MOUNTAIN VISTA 5, GRANDVIEW 4 (8 inn.)
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Grandview 000 103 00 — 4 7 3
Mtn. Vista 001 020 11 — 5 7 1
GRANDVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Keifer Glau cf 4-0-1-0, Ben Marshall lf 3-1-2-0, Eric Mingus ss 3-2-1-0, Tyler Smith 2b 4-0-0-0, Nick Brown dh 4-1-1-2, Tyler O’Dorisio 3b 3-0-0-0, Chase McLaran c 3-0-2-1, Carter Boswell rf 3-0-0-0, Morgan Smith 1b, 3-0-0-0, Peyton Taylor cr 0-0-0-0, Grant Schroeder p 0-0-0-0, Caleb Miley p 0-0-0-0. Totals 30-7-4-3. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-s0): Grant Schroeder (L, 7-6-5-3-5-3), Coley Hakes (0-1-0-0-1-0).
MOUNTAIN VISTA (ab-r-h-rbi)
Brandon Formby 2b 3-2-2-1, Zach Paschke ss-3b 2-1-1-0, Marc Mumper p-ss 1-0-1-2, Will Dixon 3b-1b 3-0-1-1, Brady Subart c 4-0-0-0, Cooper Shearon rf 4-0-1-0, Tanner Gillis 1b 3-0-0-0, Jalen Saiz p 0-0-0-0, John Krysa cf 3-0-0-0, Tyler Stromberg lf 3-1-1-0, Nate Ball cr 0-1-0-0, Tryston Renley cr 0-0-0-0. Totals 26-5-7-4. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Marc Mumper (7-7-4-4-1-6), Jalen Saiz (W, 1-0-0-0-0-0).
2B — Grandview: Nick Brown; Mountain Vista (2): Brandon Formby, Marc Mumper.