4A baseball: Ponderosa heads to final day of state tournament without a loss
PUEBLO — The only thing better than having a chance to win a baseball state championship is having two.
That’s exactly what Ponderosa will have on Saturday as the Mustangs beat D’Evelyn 7-3 to advance to Saturday unbeaten. With Holy Family winning earlier in the day, it means that the Tigers will have to take down Ponderosa twice while the Mustangs need just one win to claim the Class 4A state baseball title.
“We’ve talked about this for years and we approached it as another game we had to win” Ponderosa coach Bob Maloney said. “It’s huge for us to go into tomorrow undefeated especially against a quality Holy Family team.”
The Mustangs (20-2 overall) have no desire to fix a game plan that isn’t broken. They advanced to the second weekend of the state tournament without a loss by being steady on the mound and powerfully opportunistic at the plate.
After falling behind 1-0 to the Jaguars (14-5) in the top of the second inning, Ponderosa strung together four quick runs to take control.
In the third, the Mustangs showed off some of the power they had last week in Pueblo as Dom Lopez blasted a solo home run, his third of the state tournament.
“When you’re playing with a lead, it’s so much easier,” Lopez said. “And when you know your sticks are hot, you know you can get away with things you can’t get away with in you’re not hitting as well.”
With plenty of offense in the bag, pitcher Cael Porter maintained a steady hand after entering the game with one out in the second inning. Knowing he would get the necessary run support, Porter was determined to do his job and put the Mustangs in firm control of the state tournament heading into the final day of play.
“I wasn’t sure how our offense was going to do today,” Porter said. “I knew we’d do alright but that run support definitely helped a lot. I was nervous coming in and that made me feel a lot better.”
Holy Family’s championship hopes remain alive after battling back to beat Cheyenne Mountain 5-4 in the day’s first game. The Tigers (19-2) were up 3-0 after the first inning and Izaak Siefken kept the Cheyenne Mountain hitters at bay for most of the game. A three-run pad felt good enough to win as the game reached the later innings.
“I thought it was,” Siefken said. “Cheyenne Mountain fought hard and came back. They beat me in that last inning.”
Trailing 3-1 heading to the 7th, Cheyenne Mountain (17-4) got the tying run across the plate to force the game into extra innings, where it took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 8th.
A base hit and a hit batter put runners on first and second for the Tigers and Ryan Chacon brought them home with a hard hit double, keeping the Tigers in the mix.
It was the kind of win that the Tigers saw Ponderosa get last week and now there is hope a walk-off win could ignite a championship run.
“It could be,” Holy Family coach John Ray said. “Brad Helton threw a heck of a game against us, for all intents and purposes it just came out Holy Family.”
The Tigers and the Mustangs will play at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at Hobbs Field following the conclusion of the 2A state championship game. Should Holy Family win, the second game will begin at 3 p.m.
