DENVER | One thing is a certainty — unless coach Allan Dyer plans to throw the ultimate curve ball — a left-handed pitcher will be on the mound when the Cherokee Trail baseball team resumes the Class 4A Championship Series.
The only question is which of Dyer’s three southpaws — Jerome Bohannon, Conner Nantkes or Keven MacKintosh — will toe the rubber when the Cougars face Mullen in a game now scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday (because of a weather postponement) at All-City Field.
Cherokee Trail has the benefit of the undefeated position thanks to a 3-0 start, so the game with Mullen is not a make-or-break game. A win puts the Cougars (20-4) into a 10 a.m. game Sunday — against the winner of Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. elimination game against Cherry Creek and Rocky Mountain — with the chance to win a state championship and the comfort of another game at 12:30 p.m. if they drop that one.
A loss to Mullen pushes the Cougars into the 12:30 p.m. game to await the winner of Mullen against Cherry Creek or Rocky Mountain with the state championship on the line. (Updated Championship Series schedule, here)
While Dyer indicated earlier in the week he hadn’t yet made his choice of how he would deploy his pitchers and would consult some coaches he trusts for advice, but he wants to win Saturday to set up Sunday.
“We want to be be able to go into Saturday (now Sunday) and be in the position where somebody would have to beat us twice,” said Dyer, who is seeking his first 5A state championship and second overall, as he guided the Cougars to the 4A title in 2007.
Whichever option he chooses on the mound, Dyer can hardly go wrong.
Nantkes is 7-1 with a team-best 1.53 ERA and has gone the full seven innings in both of his postseason starts, while Bohannon (a Metro State signee) is 6-0 with a 1.78 ERA and has gone five-plus innings twice in the playoffs. Both pitched six innings in victories over Mullen during the regular season as Nantkes spun a 3-hitter in an 11-1 win on May 3 and Bohannon struck out 11 over six innings in a 7-1 victory three days later.
MacKintosh, who has been primarily used as a closer, contributed six strong innings as a starter in a 10-8 win over Centennial League rival Cherry Creek which put Cherokee Trail into the advantageous position it holds.
All three Cougars’ lefties average nearly a strikeout per inning as well, which will be important against the potent offensive lineups that remain in the Championship Series.
Pitching is certainly a strength for Cherokee Trail, as is offense. Senior first baseman Ryan Sullivan is hitting at a scalding .539 clip and nearly half of his 41 base hits have gone for extra bases (12 doubles, two triples and four home runs) along with a team-high 31 RBI.
Juniors Nick Perez (.473), Nantkes (.468) and Eric Cox (.402 with a whopping 17 doubles) and senior Matt Meraz (.414) join Sullivan with batting averages over .400, while Bohannon and Travis Lynch each match Sullivan in the power department with four homers and nine players have driven in 10 or more runs this season and five have 20 or more, including junior Michael Morris.
Senior John-Michael Osley joined the double-digit RBI group by driving in four runs in three games.
And the thing that brings it all together for the Cougars is team chemistry, which is the ultimate factor in getting them to this position through a season that saw a spring break trip to Arizona scuttled by weather — forcing a three-game set with Mountain Vista — and a parade of rescheduled games that ultimately led to them finishing on top of the rugged Centennial League.
A loose group with plenty of personality has the intangibles of a championship-caliber team and one that does whatever it takes to pull out a victory, much like Cherokee Trail’s 2007 championship-winning group.
That camaraderie is a big reason why Nantkes decided to stay with his grandparents and finish out his junior year with his team, even though his parents — including father Kurt, a former Aurora star pitcher himself at Hinkley High School in the 1990s — currently live in Seattle.
“I’m treating this like a my senior year and I think we all want a ring pretty bad, that’s the goal for sure,” Nantkes told the Sentinel earlier this season.
If the Cougars stay true to all the elements that got them to this spot, the ring is there for them.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
2016 CLASS 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
May 28 at All-City Field
Game 12: No. 8 Mullen (2-1) vs. NO. 4 CHEROKEE TRAIL (3-0), 10 a.m.
Game 13: No. 2 Cherry Creek (2-1) vs. No. 1 Rocky Mountain (2-1), 12:30 p.m.
May 29 at All-City Field
Game 14: Game 12 winner vs. Game 13 winner, 10 a.m.
Game 15: Game 14 winner vs. Game 14 loser (if necessary, if loser of Game 14 has one loss), 12:30 p.m.
