AURORA | Rangeview will gladly take any win over rival Gateway it can get in any sports, regardless of the circumstances.
The fact that Saturday morning’s meeting between the district adversaries had major implications in the chase for berths in the Class 5A state baseball postseason made a 5-3 victory even more satisfying for the Raiders.
Junior shortstop Colton Bennett tripled in two runs and scored in a three-run fifth inning and senior right-hander Ryan Christian tossed seven innings of six-hit baseball as Rangeview rallied from a late deficit to beat Gateway.
With a loss, coach Mike Hamilton’s Raiders would have been eliminated from contention for one of the four 5A postseason berths out of the East Metro Athletic Conference.
Instead, the win over the Olys — plus a victory over Aurora Central in the second game of a split doubleheader — gave Rangeview (11-7, 6-3 in EMAC) the inside track to the third seed out of the conference behind Northglenn and Brighton.
Gateway, meanwhile, needs to beat Aurora Central on Monday and have Northglenn beat Prairie View to have any chance of getting into the postseason with the fourth seed.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
RANGEVIEW 5, GATEWAY 3
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Gateway 010 110 0 — 3 6 2
Rangeview 100 130 x — 5 5 1
GATEWAY (ab-r-h-rbi)
Eric Ayon 2b 4-0-0-0, Chris Cronsell c 1-0-0-0, Lance Savage pr 0-1-0-0, Miguel Gonzalez ss 3-1-1-1, Brandon Lopez 1b 3-0-1-0, Tyler Fitzgerald cf 2-1-1-1, Hunter Valdo dh 3-0-0-0, Josh Escalante 3b 3-1-2-0, Souneth Ly lf 2-0-0-0, Eduardo Ramirez p 2-0-1-0. Totals 23-3-6-2. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Eduardo Ramirez (L, 6-5-5-2-2-2).
RANGEVIEW (ab-r-h-rbi)
Lonnie Delgado lf 2-1-2-0, Colton Bennett ss 3-1-1-2, Dillon Joye 3b 1-0-0-1, Dylan Greenwald dh 3-1-2-1, Trevor Caldwell 1b 3-0-0-0, Jeffrey Cordova c 2-0-1-1, Tim Ealy cf 3-0-0-0, Casey McBride rf 3-1-1-0, Luis Montez 2b 1-0-0-0. Totals 20-5-5-5. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Ryan Christian (7-6-3-3-4-8).
2B — Rangeview: Lonnie Delgado 2, Dylan Greenwald, Casey McBride. HR — Gateway: Tyler Fitzgerald (solo in 2nd).
