The first handful of innings of the Regis Jesuit baseball team’s Class 5A Championship Series appearance were certainly a little shaky.
But the Raiders definitely found their groove.
Down a run in the late stages of an important opening contest against Mountain Vista May 22, Regis Jesuit found its spark and from there, it turned great into a wildfire as the Raiders completed a 3-0 weekend and took command of the double-elimination series, which concludes May 30.
“Since the sixth inning of the game against Vista, we were really able to turn it around,” senior catcher Jack Manthey said after Regis Jesuit’s 14-8 win over Arvada West May 23 at All-Star Park.
“Baseball is such a momentum shift game,” he added. “I think we were a little nervous going into that, but since then, our confidence has been on another level. It’s been great.”
Indeed, since Regis Jesuit overcame that one-run deficit against Mountain Vista at All-City Stadium, it outscored its three opponents (the Golden Eagles, No. 7 Legend and Arvada) 24-11 en route to prime position to win the program’s fourth all-time state title and first since 2019.
Coach Matt Darr’s Raiders (22-6)— who will play for the state title for a third straight season — will next take the field at 10 a.m. May 30 at All-Star Park against the survivor of two games played May 29, which will first pit No. 4 Pine Creek against No. 7 Legend with the victor taking on No. 1 Arvada West for a spot in the final.
The challenge for Regis Jesuit is doing something it wasn’t able to do the last time it was in this position — back in 2024 — and that is to stay sharp for a week so it can get the one win it needs. The Raiders lost twice to Cherry Creek — which they beat in the final game of the first weekend — on the final day of that Championship Series to see the title slip away.
Senior Hudson Alpert, a member of the 2024 team as well as this one, has a healthy perspective.
“This is great, but the job’s not done though,” Alpert said. “That was the message for us. It’s great to go 3-0, but I was here sophomore year and we couldn’t get it done. We just have to win one more, so we have to stay true to ourselves and have a good week of practice.”
Darr has guided his team to the final week of the Championship Series in several different ways in and he will try to put lessons learned into practice.
In attempt to “eliminate the variables,” he plans to have his team practice daily in the same 10 a.m. slot when the championship game is scheduled. He also intends to get them to work on turf (the surface present at All-Star Park) as opposed to their grass home field.
“Every one of these is different because it depends on who you are playing,” Darr said. “I’ve been here in a lot of different spots. I don’t know if it makes me old, but I’m fortunate to be here. This is a good group.”
The last time Regis Jesuit sat in this position, Darr chose to hold his ace, Alpert, for the second game if it was necessary. The Raiders lost by 10 runs in the opening contest of the day and Alpert slowed, but was unable to overcome Cherry Creek’s potent lineup and dominant pitching in a heartbreaking 5-2 loss.
Alpert — a Vanderbilt University signee — missed Regis Jesuit’s semifinal and championship game last season due to injury and underwent “Tommy John Lite” surgery to repair damage to the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL).
He returned in mid-April and has had a limited pitch count in six appearances, over which he is 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. In the Championship Series opener against Mountain Vista, Alpert allowed two earned runs on three hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Immediately after the victory over Arvada West, Darr hadn’t yet made the plan for his pitching, but Alpert is excited to be out there whenever he gets the baseball to throw. At other times, he has been a valuable defensive player at second place and he is the team’s leading hitter on the season and is 4-for-11 with a home run and five RBI in three Championship Series games.
“I want to impact the game as much as I can, offense, defense or pitching,” Alpert said. “It’s been a great year, but we still have a job to finish. …It (the championship game) will be awesome. There will be a lot of people there and it will be a great atmosphere, so we’ll be ready to play.”
Whoever they face, the Raiders hope to pick up how they left off rather than how they began play in the Championship Series.
A challenge awaited May 22 in the form of Mountain Vista, the team that finished with an identical 9-1 record as Regis Jesuit in Continental League play and had battled to within a run in a 4-3 contest April 13 that ultimately landed the league championship for the Raiders.
The Golden Eagles employed their ace in senior Sawyer Tipton, who worked past a solo home run from Regis Jesuit senior Deion Cesario-Scott and a following double by Alpert in the opening inning to take control of the ballgame. Tipton faced just 13 hitters in innings 2-5 and struck out eight of them, while nobody in the Raiders’ lineup hit the ball out of the infield in that stretch.
But Regis Jesuit turned over the lineup in the top of the sixth and finally came to life.
Senior Jacob Olson, a University of Oregon recruit who had been the only hitter not retired in the middle innings after drawing a walk in the third, singled to become the only leadoff hitter in an inning to reach. Boston College-bound senior shortstop Chase Massey followed with a double to put two runners into scoring position.
A wild pitch brought home Olson with the tying run and Massey put the Raiders ahead when he broke for home after a dropped third strike to Cesario-Scott. Junior Mikey Kroll, a starting pitcher, finished off the win after he came on in relief of Alpert in the fifth inning.
“I kept thinking, we were down one run, but it felt like we weren’t close,” Darr admitted. “I turned to my coaches and said ‘if we get to the sixth inning with the top of the lineup, I like our chances. …Tipton did a great job, but things can change when you go through the lineup three times.”
Junior Brady Wright lauded his team’s mental toughness for the ability to navigate adversity.
“I think there’s always nerves when it comes down to these games, but I think our team can control that really well,” Wright said. “We have a mental coach who walks us through it every day. He talked to us and had us prepared for this week, so we’re ready.”
The Raiders handled some adversity again in their subsequent contest against Legend, which had caused a stir in regional play with wins over host Rocky Mountain and then Cherry Creek, programs which had combined for 16 all-time state titles.
Regis Jesuit had some cushion this time, however, as it went out and put up three runs immediately on a solo home run from Massey as the second hitter of the game, followed by a single from Cesario-Scott and a double from Alpert. Wright then delivered a two-run single.
That gave junior starting pitcher Cade Filleman a cushion to work with and he maintained the lead, though the Titans cut the advantage to 4-3 in the fifth and gained some momentum.
Enter Cesario-Scott, who crushed a 3-2 fastball from Legend reliever Tyler Houston over the fence in center field to move the advantage back to two runs.
“I was able to work my way back into the at-bat and then I was sitting on a fastball,” said Cesario-Scott, who moved into second place for the season on his team in home runs with seven, while Massey has nine.
One more rally put the game out of reach and junior Ezra Christ closed it out.
That pushed the Raiders into an anticipated showdown with an Arvada West team that hadn’t lost a game in Colorado — it took three losses at the Boras Classic in Arizona — and had rolled through No. 8 Chatfield (8-1) and No. 4 Pine Creek (9-2) in its first two Championship Series tilts.
In a game in which both sides had to dig into pitching depth with its leading arms used the day before — including Cooper Vais and Brayden Reiner of the Wildcats, plus Alpert, Kroll and Filleman for the Raiders — Regis Jesuit scored twice on a single by Wright and left the bases loaded.
It was a portent of things to come, as the Raiders put up runs in six of its seven at-bats and had 16 hits against a total of five Arvada West pitchers.
Regis Jesuit trailed only once and cracked the game open with a four-run rally in the fifth inning that included a massive three-run double from Manthey.
“One thing we’ve been talking about this whole season is do it for your brothers,” said Manthey, who drove in another run later with a sacrifice fly. “I think it’s way less about me than it is about the team. I think that hit meant so much to the team and seeing my teammates really excited in the dugout felt great.
“There’s nothing else I could have asked for in that moment.”
Alpert hadn’t yet got in on the hitting until the seventh inning, when he put the exclamation mark on the victory with a three-run home run.
While they know the win over Arvada West did not clinch a title, it certainly was significant.
“All season, we’ve heard they’re better than us and heard they’re the No. 1 seed and we’re not as good as we were last year,” Olson said. “I think we played the harder schedule and I think we deserve to be here more than they do. I believe these boys truly have worked harder than anybody else. It feels great, but I think we knew we’d be here.”
Darr has seen his team get some of the fortunate things that championship teams have going for them on their runs such as the wild throwout at home plate against Mountain Vista that came after an errant pickup throw ended up in right field.
“We’ve had a lot of breaks …sometimes if you are meant to win, that’s way more important than if you’re better,” Darr said. “We’re really good, but things are starting to line up.”
