DENVER | The Regis Jesuit baseball team pitched well and played championship-level defense Friday in back-to-back victories at All-City Stadium to open the Class 5A Baseball Championship Series.
The second-seeded Raiders came off a tight win over No. 7 Fort Collins in the opening round into an all-Aurora matchup with No. 11 Cherokee Trail, the team that had eliminated them in each of the past two postseasons.
This time, it was coach Matt Darr’s Regis Jesuit team that prevailed in the matchup, as it got five shutout innings from senior starting pitcher Liam Mosley and just enough offense — including a home run from senior shortstop Andrew Bell — in a 3-0 victory.
“They knocked us out the last two years and it is two schools that are close (to each other), so there’s a lot of chirping going on,” Darr said. “It was a well-played game by both sides and well-pitched, we just luckily got a few more across.”
Regis Jesuit finished the day 2-0 and moved on in the championship bracket of the double-elimination tournament, which pits it against No. 5 Cherry Creek in a 2:30 p.m. contest at All-Star Park in Lakewood. The winner of that game moves on to championship day on June 1, while the loser will have to go through some elimination contests to try to get a rematch.
Mosley came into the game with a 7-0 record and for a couple of innings dueled with Cherokee Trail junior Carter Wilcox, who threw a complete game, two-hit shutout when the teams played on the final weekend of last season’s tournament.
Mosley benefited from strong defense — like sophomore Hudson Alpert had behind him in a 3-1 opening win over Horizon — like in the second inning when senior third baseman Trevor Nordstrom fielded a grounder, stepped on third base and threw to first base for an inning-ending double play.
Regis Jesuit broke through against Wilcox with single runs in the third and fourth inning — which included a steal of home by senior pinch runner Colin Dwyer — before Bell connected on a solo home run in the fifth inning. It was the sixth homer of the year for the Duke University recruit.
Cherokee Trail drops into a noon Saturday elimination contest at Lakewood’s All-Star Park against the winner of a 9:30 a.m. contest between No. 8 Prairie View and No. 13 Chaparral.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
CLASS 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
(2) REGIS JESUIT 3, (11) CHEROKEE TRAIL 0
Score by innings:
Cherokee Trail 000 000 0 — 0 9 0
Regis Jesuit 001 110 x — 3 5 0
CHEROKEE TRAIL (ab-r-h-rbi)
Brody Ceyrolles 2b 4-0-2-0, Landon Olds 3b 4-0-0-0, Braedan Reichert ss 3-0-2-0, Akoi Burton rf 3-0-1-0, Logan Reid dh 3-0-1-0, Jake Hernandez 1b 2-0-1-0, Luca Slavato c 3-0-0-0, Jack Boyko lf 3-0-0-0, Johnny Robledo cf 3-0-2-0. Totals 28-0-9-0. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Carter Wilcox (L, 5-5-3-3-2-5), Ethin Woltz (1-0-0-0-0-1).
REGIS JESUIT (ab-r-h-rbi)
Christian Lopez cf 1-0-0-0, Andrew Bell ss 3-1-1-1, Brody Chyr rf 2-0-0-0, Trevor Nordstrom 3b 3-0-1-0, Hudson Alpert 2b 3-0-1-0, Chase Massey dh 3-1-0-0, Gavin Cronin lf 2-0-1-1, Nick Wiley 2-0-1-0, Jace Filleman 1b 1-0-0-0, Colin Dwyer cr 0-1-0-0, Grant Wiebe c 0-0-0-0. Totals 20-3-5-2. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Liam Mosley (W, 5-7-0-0-0-1), Matteo Momo (2-2-0-0-1-3).
2B — Cherokee Trail: Braedan Reichert, Johnny Robledo. Regis Jesuit: Gavin Cronin, Nick Wiley. HR — Regis Jesuit: Andrew Bell (solo in 5th inning)