AURORA | Morning baseball’s version of a strong cup of coffee came Saturday for the Cherokee Trail baseball team courtesy of senior shortstop Braedan Reichert.
The Cougars were understandably dragging a bit with a very short turnaround from a game the previous day that went nine innings and ended with a win in the fading daylight on a hit from senior Tommy Munch.
Coach Jon DiGiorgio’s team came up against a Legacy team that eliminated it in the semifinals of last season’s Class 5A Baseball Championship Series and brought in the No. 5 ranking in the latest CHSAANow.com 5A coaches poll. It was the recipe for a letdown, but Reichert woke his team up with a three-run home run in the bottom half of a four-run first inning that sparked a 6-3 win and extended its winning streak to three games.
“It was tough and we were talking in the locker room this morning that our bodies were hurting, but we knew it Legacy and we lost to them twice last year,” Reichert said. “We wanted our revenge and we got it. We all played well, our pitchers threw great, our hitting was there. We had a good game.”
Reichert (who had three hits) added an RBI double in the fourth inning as insurance, while junior Akoi Burton had three hits and drove in a run and senior Preston Koch also had an RBI for the Cougars, who improved to 6-3.
Junior Keegan Eberly struck out six in 4 1/3 innings of strong relief and sophomore Carter Wilcox pitched 1 1/3 innings to close it out for Cherokee Trail.
It was the first inning that set the tone, however, especially coming roughly 18 hours after a 7-6 win over ThunderRidge. Reichert drove a full count pitch from Legacy starter Senan Heys over the fence as part of an inning that saw Cherokee Trail hit around.
“I had a two-strike approach and I went no stride and I just caught a barrel; it just flew,” Reichert said. “I came in the dugout and everybody was hype. It definitely got us up.”
The Cougars had some other big innings brewing, but weren’t able to break the game open offensively.
They had enough runs thanks to the efforts of Eberly, who followed Munch to the mound and had a strong outing that saw him cede just two solo home runs in the fifth inning. He departed with a runner aboard after getting two outs in the sixth inning.
“This was the first real relief I’ve had on varsity,” said Eberly, whose last appearance came back on March 7 against Eaglecrest at Coors Field. “I was just trying to keep it as quick as possible.”
DiGiorgio was pleased to see how his team responded to the grind of the previous game and how it has established some momentum after an uneven start.
“Right now as a team, the seniors are very vocal that they want to go to the playoffs and they want all the young guys to experience it as well,” DiGiorgio said. “I think we’re coming together as a team, getting the bats going and those sorts of things. Do we have things to work on? Of course, but it still feels really early.”
Cherokee Trail has a Centennial League contest at Grandview (5-4) coming up Tuesday at 4:15 p.m.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
CHEROKEE TRAIL 6, (5) LEGACY 3
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Legacy 010 020 0 — 3 3 0
Cher. Trail 401 100 x — 6 9 0
LEGACY (ab-r-h-rbi)
Ethan Sanchez 3-0-0-0, Brandon Sanchez 2-1-1-1, Marcus Romero 4-0-0-0, Derek Olsen 4-1-1-1, Kullen Lerma 2-1-1-0, Braidon Brown 2-0-0-0, Ethan Pagenkopp 2-0-0-1, Jason Olsen 1-0-0-0, Seth Olivier 1-0-0-0, Quinn Walker 0-0-0-0. Totals 23-3-3-3. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Senan Hays (L, 1-4-4-4-1-0), Jaidon D’Ambrosio (2 1/3-2-2-2-2-3), Jake Ledford (1 2/3-2-0-0-1-3), Reed Lellbach (1-1-0-0-0-1).
CHEROKEE TRAIL (ab-r-h-rbi)
Brody Ceyrolles 2b 4-0-0-0, Bowen Tabola c 2-2-0-0, Tommy Munch p 2-1-0-0, Braedan Reichert ss 4-1-3-4, Mason Grube 3b 4-2-1-0, Zach Garcia DH 3-0-0-0, Preston Koch 1b 1-0-1-1, Akoi Burton lf 3-0-3-1, Colton Gray rf 3-0-0-0. Totals 27-6-8-6. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Tommy Munch (1 1/3-0-1-1-5-2), Keegan Eberly (W, 4 1/3-3-2-2-1-6), Carter Wilcox (1 1/3-0-0-0-0-2)
2B — Cherokee Trail: Mason Grube, Braedan Reichert. HR — Legacy: Derek Olsen (solo in 5th), Brandon Sanchez (solo in 5th). Cherokee Trail: Reichert (2 on in 1st)