LAKEWOOD | Trouble eventually caught up to the Cherokee Trail baseball team Saturday morning in its Class 5A Championship Series contest with Rock Canyon.
The 25th-seeded Cougars — coming off an upset win over No. 1 Broomfield in their opening game Friday — managed to get out of some tough situations early and hold a 2-1 lead over the fifth-seeded Jaguars after three innings of play at All-Star Park, but things eventually changed in the fourth inning.
Rock Canyon cashed in four runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth and held Cherokee Trail’s scrappy offense at bay for a 7-2 victory that gave the Cougars their first loss of the double-elimination tournament.
Coach Jon DiGiorgio’s Cherokee Trail team will have its back against the wall in an elimination contest scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at All-City Stadium against sixth-seeded Chaparral, which topped 10th-seeded Rocky Mountain 2-1.
Senior Bowen Tabola doubled among two hits and drove in both runs for the Cougars, who were held to just three hits. Zach Garcia had the other.
Sophomore Carter Wilcox — whose complete game victory with 11 strikeouts clinched the Championship Series berth for Cherokee Trail in regionals — allowed six hits and five runs in four innings before senior Tommy Munch finished the final two innings.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 CLASS 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
(5) ROCK CANYON 7, (25) CHEROKEE TRAIL 2
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Cher. Trail 002 000 0 — 2 3 0
Rock Canyon 100 402 x — 7 9 0
WP — Rock Canyon: Austin Bowker (7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). LP — Cherokee Trail: Carter Wilcox (4 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K). Cherokee Trail hitting: Bowen Tabola 2-3, 2 RBI; Zach Garcia 1-2, run; Colton Gray run. Rock Canyon hitting: Will Garduno 3-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Adam Smith 2-2, 2 2B, 2 RBI, run; Sean Barta 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI, run; JT Shank 1-3, run
