Jeffco League has a stranglehold on 4A baseball
Life in baseball’s Class 4A Jeffco League is cutthroat. It borders on cannibalism.
Within this ecosystem, 10 teams are battling for three automatic berths into the 4A postseason field. As of Monday, five of them are ranked. That includes three in the top five, and the No. 1 (D’Evelyn) and No. 2 (Evergreen) teams — who meet on Tuesday evening.
And they’re all beating up on one another.
For example: On Monday, No. 6 Wheat Ridge upset No. 1 D’Evelyn. It was the second-consecutive week in which a top-ranked 4A Jeffco team fell to a league foe.
“It’s tough, man,” said longtime D’Evelyn coach Dan Porreco. “I mean everybody is really good. We ran into Wheat Ridge last night, and they did a nice job. They’re good. Every day, you’ve got to be ready and do your best. It’s crazy.”
Added Evergreen coach Steve Jones: “It’s like a heavyweight prize fight each time you take the field.”
Last week, Jeffco had the top three teams in the poll, with Green Mountain, D’Evelyn and Evergreen. But then Valor Christian — another 4A Jeffco team — upset No. 1 Green Mountain.
Shortly, the Eagles, too, found themselves ranked. They are No. 9 this week. Green Mountain is now No. 5.
“It does put a little more emphasis on the games, but it makes the regular season fun,” said Wheat Ridge coach Adam Miller, who is in his 13th season with the Farmers. “I think the kids look to it as a challenge, and if you present it that way to them, every day is a fun day.”
The league placed three teams in the Final 8 last year — but that doesn’t include current league member Valor, which played independent schedule last season and also reached that stage. And Green Mountain won last season’s 4A title, the first for a team in the league since Golden won in 2003.
Is this the start of a shift in power?
“When you’re looking at the Northern League … they’ve produced a few state champions over the last number of years,” said Valor Christian coach Keith Wahl. “At some point in time, when you’re looking at the best league, you’re looking at the best playoff record, you’re looking at the state champions coming out of the league, and (the 4A Jeffco is) right there. But I think for us to be considered (the best), you’ve got to continue to hold up the trophy at the end.”
This season, the strength has been evident. Teams from the 4A Jeffco are a combined 25-4 against other 4A leagues this season. The includes an astonishing 17-0 mark from the current top eight teams in the league standings.
Shoot, the 4A Jeffco is 20-10 against 5A teams to this point.
Consider for a moment just the top five:
- Wheat Ridge is 11-3, but one loss is to a team from Arizona, and the other two were one-run losses to 5A teams.
- Evergreen is 12-1, with the lone loss coming to a team from Oregon.
- D’Evelyn was 13-0 before losing to Wheat Ridge on Monday.
- Green Mountain? 10-4, with three out-of-state losses, and a fourth to Valor, a league foe.
- Even Valor’s 7-6 record is deceiving. The Eagles have four out-of-state losses, one loss to a 5A team, and their other loss came to Littleton — which, yes, plays in the 4A Jeffco.
“It prepares our kids for the every day,” said Wahl, now in his seventh year at Valor. “Today we go against Golden, we have to bring our best. Tomorrow we go against Evergreen, we have to bring our best. It helps our guys. And ultimately, it does season you for playoff time.”
“There’s lot of good teams, and I think the better pitching you see, the better it makes you come playoff time,” added Green Mountain coach Brad Madden. “Because you’re not getting any (No. 3 or 4 pitchers) in the playoffs. It’s all 1s and 2s.”
Said Jones, the Evergreen coach: “It’s like the old saying from the Bible: ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ Playing the toughest competition day-in and day-out, it’s just going to make you better.”
But there’s one catch: You’ve got to make the playoffs first.
“It pays off,” Jones said. “It does pay its dividends — if you can survive.”
Because the league only gets three automatic qualifiers, it leaves the other seven fighting for five at-large berths with the rest of the teams in 4A. One of those berths will almost certainly go to Ponderosa, which will automatically qualify if it wins 10 games. The Mustangs already have nine wins.
So, really, the 4A Jeffco teams are fighting for four at-large berths, which are based upon standings in the Wild Card points. That’s tough.
“If we don’t keep winning, we could be on the outside looking in. If Golden doesn’t keep winning, they could be on the outside looking in,” Wahl said. “I mean, it’s a tough deal to stare down the barrel of that gun.”
If the season were to end today, the league would get five teams in the postseason, including two at-large berths. One of those berths would go to Littleton, meaning Valor Christian — currently the ninth-best team in 4A, according to voters — would stay home.
The Eagles have some ground to make up in terms of Wild Card points. They are currently six spots outside of an at-large berth, so their focus right now is on securing an automatic spot.
“This group this year is young for us, they’re inexperienced, but what they’re getting an opportunity to experience is every game matters,” Wahl said. “I don’t think they’ve ever had that before.”
And in the 4A Jeffco this season, that feeling is only magnified.
“There’s no breathers, especially when we get backed up (by weather) like this,” Madden said. “There’s no chance to go get a JV guy some work on the mound. You’ve got to go with your guys the whole way through.”
Added Jones: “There are any number of teams in the Jeffco 4A league that are worthy to be in the playoffs, and some of them aren’t going to make it. It’s a tough thing to embrace. But, of course, that’s the system and we’re going to live under it and do our best to qualify.”
Porreco, now in his 20th year at D’Evelyn, said this is as good as he’s ever seen the league.
“I mean there’s been some great teams in the past — you know Golden when they won the state tournament (in 2003); Wheat Ridge when they dropped down (from 5A), they’ve been good every year, and Evergreen’s always really good,” the coach said. “This is, I would say, might be the best the league’s been in a long time.”
“I don’t think there’s an easy team in our league,” added Miller, the Wheat Ridge coach. “You’ve got to rev it up pretty much every day.”
