AURORA | After an unpredictable first day of the Class 5A state softball tournament, Grandview was one of the fortunate four teams left standing.
On a day full of upsets of highly-seeded teams, coach Dave Thies’ sixth-seeded Wolves powered past both No. 11 Chaparral and No. 14 Columbine to advance to the 5A Final Four for the first time in program history.
Grandview faces No. 7 Broomfield — which got past Central (G.J.) and Horizon in its two games — in a 10 a.m. semifinal Saturday at the Aurora Sports Park. The winner faces the winner between No. 1 Fossil Ridge and No. 4 Castle View for the state championship at 1:30 p.m. Castle View ousted the only other Aurora team in the field, No. 12 Eaglecrest, with a 1-0 decision in the quarterfinals.
Senior Ande Troutman cracked a big home run late and junior Sydni Odegard had a strong day at the plate as the Wolves posted a 10-2 quarterfinal victory over Columbine, which pulled off one of the big upsets in the tournament in the opening round when it rallied for a 5-4 win over No. 3 Brighton.
Junior right-hander Courtney Browne posted her second straight outstanding effort on the mound, following up the seven-hitter she threw against Chaparral.
The Wolves trailed Chaparral 3-0 through three innings in the opener, but piled up 10 runs in their next three at-bats to win comfortably.
Grandview got on the scoreboard first when Troutman bunted with two runners aboard and the throw to first base hit her in the shoulder and rolled into the outfield. The Wolves stranded Troutman at third base with the tying run, but evened the game on Loghan Thomas’ RBI double and went ahead when Emily Supercynski singled in Thomas.
Kat Maynard and Jordyn McDaniel drew bases loaded walks to drive in runs in the sixth ahead of Thomas’ three-run double that pushed Grandview into double digits.
Eaglecrest pulled one of the upsets of the day in the first round with a 9-1 dispatching of fifth-seeded Legend.
Junior pitchers Alexa Romero and Sarah Bushman combined to allow just one run for coach Yvette Hendrian’s Raptors, while freshman Kailey Wilson struck a big blow with a three-run home run to give Eaglecrest insurance in the later innings.
The Raptors moved into a matchup against Castle View and ace pitcher Savannah Heebner and fell behind early when a bloop two-out single led a run for the SaberCats’ in the bottom of the first inning.
Eaglecrest had three runners reach scoring position — Tayler Mashburn on a double in the third inning, Taylor Menard on an error in the fifth inning and Lauren Buckley on a single and groundout in the sixth — but stranded all three against Heebner, who struck out 10.
The Raptors finished the season 15-9.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
2014 CLASS 5A STATE SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
Quarterfinals: Grandview 10, Columbine 2
First round: Grandview 10, Chaparral 3
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Chaparral 201 000 0 — 3 7 2
Grandview 000 226 x — 10 11 0
WP — Grandview: Courtney Browne (7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB, K); Grandview hitting: Alex Velazquez 0-3, run; Kat Maynard 2-3, 2B, RBI; Jordyn McDaniel flex 1-3, RBI, 2 runs; Loghan Thomas 3-4, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Emily Supercynski 2-4, RBI, run; Ande Troutman 1-4, 2B, RBI; Courtney Browne 1-4; Jaelyn Visintin run; Sydni Odegard 1-3, run; Terran Caldwell 0-3
Quarterfinals: Castle View 1, Eaglecrest 0
First round: Eaglecrest 9, Legend 1