AURORA | The Cherokee Trail softball team has a track record of going deep in the Class 5A state tournament once its gets there.
The Cougars got tripped up uncommonly early this season, however, as they suffered a 3-2 nine-inning loss to Ponderosa Friday at the Aurora Sports Park.
Eighth-seeded Cherokee Trail trailed the ninth-seeded Mustangs for most of the game and took a lead in the sixth inning on a clutch two-run single by senior catcher Haylie Wenke, but ceded the tying run in the seventh inning and the eventual go-ahead run in the ninth.
“Overall we came together and played as a team, we just didn’t hit the way we had been,” said Wenke, who homered twice the previous weekend when the Cougars amassed a combined 29 runs on 29 hits in a pair of regional victories.
Coach Caley Mitchell’s junior-heavy Cherokee Trail team — the 2016 state champions who also made it to the state title game in 2018 and 2020 — finished the season finished the season 17-9 overall.
Ponderosa got off to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Cougars’ starter Cayman Lightner limited the damage. She would follow that with zeroes in the next five innings to allow her team a chance to come back, which it finally would be able to do against hard-throwing junior Olivia Trombley.
Trombley finished with a whopping 18 strikeouts for the game, but she slowed down perceptively in the later innings and Cherokee Trail’s offense — which had scored at least eight runs per game in its previous eight contests — got a chance to get going.
The Cougars stranded a baserunner in scoring position three times in the first five innings, but finally came through in the sixth inning. Sophomores Kennedy Brian and Kylie Twilt and junior Julia Russell had consecutive singles to load the bases.
Trombley struck out the next two hitters, but she surrendered a base hit to Wenke — who was clutch all postseason for Cherokee Trail — to bring in Kennedy and Twilt and push the team to a 2-1 lead.
A throwing error allowed Ponderosa to get a runner to second base in the top of the seventh inning and Lightner bore down to get a foul pop-up. Mitchell then decided to issue an intentional walk to the dangerous Trombley — a .600-plus hitter who had hit 11 home runs on the season, second-most in 5A during the regular season — to bring up senior Lauren Stucky.
Stucky got down to her last strike, then rifled a ball into the outfield to bring home the tying run. It was nearly the same scenario in the ninth inning when senior Ellie Williams reached with two outs and was pushed to second on another intentional walk to Trombley. Stucky — who also drove in the first run of the game — came through again to push Ponderosa in front.
Junior Jocelyn Steiner reached on a single and got to second base in the bottom of the inning for Cherokee Trail, but Trombley got Brian on a hard grounder to end the game.
The silver lining for the Cougars is that the majority of the roster is made up of underclassmen. Only three players that played in the playoff game — Wenke, Jenna Fullmer, who played second base and Alyssa Fullmer, who pinch hit — will graduate.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2022 CLASS 5A STATE SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
First round, Oct. 21 at Aurora Sports Park
(9) PONDEROSA 3, (8) CHEROKEE TRAIL 2 (9 Inn.)
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Ponderosa 100 000 101 — 3 8 5
Cher. Trail 000 002 000 — 2 7 3
PONDEROSA (ab-r-h-rbi)
Ellie Delozier 4-0-0-0, Jasi Martinez 4-2-1-0, Ellie Williams 5-1-2-0, Olivia Trombley 3-0-2-0, Lauren Stucky 5-0-3-3, Delaney Wright 4-0-0-0, Lexi Martinez 3-0-1-0, Leandra Winner 3-0-0-0. Totals 35-3-9-3. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Olivia Trombley (W, 9-11-2-2-2-18)
CHEROKEE TRAIL (ab-r-h-rbi)
Chiara Pryor cf 5-0-2-0, Addi Krei ss 4-0-1-0, Jocelyn Steiner lf 5-0-0-0, Kennedy Brian 1b 5-1-2-0, Julia Russell 3b 4-0-0-0, Cayman Lightner p 3-0-0-0, Alyssa Fullmer ph 1-0-0-0, Sade Davis 4-0-0-0, Haylie Wenke c 3-0-1-2. Totals 38-2-7-2. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Cayman Lightner (L, 9-8-3-1-4-7)
2B — Ponderosa: Lauren Stucky