DENVER | Hope sprung inside Reece Weber as he watched his seventh-inning drive head toward the All-City Field fence.
The Grandview senior slugger tracked the ball as it got deeper and deeper and closer and closer toward tying a ballgame his team trailed by two runs with just one out left.
Instead, Weber’s drive came to rest in the glove of Rocky Mountain’s Spencer Ibarra on the warning track in left center field, sealing an 8-6 Lobos’ win Saturday afternoon that eliminated the Wolves from the Class 5A baseball championship series.
Rocky Mountain advanced to Saturday, where it will face sizzling ThunderRidge, which eliminated Cherry Creek with a 5-1 victory. The Grizzlies have yet to lose in the tournament, meaning the Lobos must beat them twice to win the state title.
Grandview’s season came to a close at 20-5, but the Wolves didn’t go quietly.
Trailing 8-3 with just two at-bats left, Grandview scored twice in the sixth inning on a home run by Jake Thurston — who doubled twice and homered and had 3 RBI on the day — and Chris Browne’s RBI single. The Wolves might have had even more if not for a bang-bang play at home plate that saw Rory Stewart get called out on the slide.
Stewart slid past the tag attempt of Rocky Mountain catcher Marcus Bean, who appeared to think he missed the tag and lunged again for Stewart, who had by then touched the plate. Grandview coach Dean Adams argued vehemently but to no avail.
Reliever Tanner Thomas gave the Wolves another chance with a three-run deficit, as he worked out of a bases-loaded jam with a called strikeout of Cale O’Donnell and a lazy fly to right from Bean.
Down to their last out, Mingus singled off reliever Cory Richer and came home on Thurston’s double to bring up Weber — who led Grandview in home runs and RBI — as the tying run. Working the count to 2-2, Weber drove the ball to the gap where it was caught, then dropped to his knees on the infield in disbelief.
(1) ROCKY MOUNTAIN 8, (4) GRANDVIEW 6
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Rocky Mtn. 012 302 0 — 8 15 2
Grandview 100 202 1 — 6 10 0
ROCKY MOUNTAIN (ab-r-h-rbi)
Spencer Ibarra cf 5-1-3-1, Dane Raber lf 5-0-1-0, Carl Stadjuhar 3b 3-2-2-2, Cale O’Donnell 1b 3-3-2-0, Grant Gamble p-rf 3-1-1-1, Tyler Stevens ss 3-0-2-3, Cole Anderson pr 0-0-0-0, Trevor Thomas rf-p 4-1-1-0, Nathan Eisherimer 1-0-0-0, Kyle Reisman ph 1-0-1-0, Dean Lawson ph 1-0-0-0. Totals 34-8-15-7. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Grant Gamble (3 2/3-4-3-3-5-3), Marc Bachman (W, 1 1/3-1-0-0-1-0), Trevor Thomas (1-3-2-2-2-1), Cory Richer (Save, 1-2-1-1-2-1).
GRANDVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Eric Mingus 3b 5-2-2-1, Jake Thurston ss 4-2-3-3, Reece Weber p-cf 2-1-0-0, Eric Olguin pr 0-0-0-0, Rory Stewart 1b 3-0-1-1, Josh Huntley c 4-0-1-0, Josh Sundine pr 0-0-0-0, Chris Browne dh 3-0-1-1, Trevor Minner rf 4-0-1-0, Chris Magoon lf 4-0-1-0, Brooks Adams 2b 2-1-0-0. Totals 31-6-10-6. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Reece Weber (L, 3-8-6-6-3-3), Tanner Thomas (4-7-2-2-3-3).
2B — Grandview: Jake Thurston 2, Eric Mingus. HR — Rocky Mountain: Grant Gamble (solo in 3rd), Carl Stadjuhar (1 on in 4th); Grandview: Thurston (solo in 6th).
