5A baseball: Broomfield, Legacy, and Cherokee Trail advance to final day of state tournament

DENVER – The final day of the 2022 Class 5A baseball tournament is set, as No. 7 Cherokee Trail will face No. 2 Legacy for the right to play No. 5 Broomfield in the state championship game tomorrow at All-City Stadium.

The first game between the Cougars and the Lightning will begin at 11 a.m., with the title game set to take place at 1:30 p.m.

(7) Cherokee Trail 12, (5) Broomfield 8

With a 12-8 win over tournament undefeated Broomfield, Cherokee Trail advanced to tomorrow for a chance to play their way into the championship game.

“One more day, that’s been our motto this whole tournament,” CT head coach Jon DiGiorgio said. “We’ve just been grinding away at it, but having fun with it at the same time. Our players are coming through at the right time. The goal is to shock everyone, and we’ll just keep playing until we can’t.”

Like he has all season and tournament, Tyler Wilcox put the team on his shoulder, throwing a complete game with four strikeouts.

“Tyler’s been our guy all season, he’s been our leader,” DiGiorgio added. “Theirs is no one else I want with the ball in their hand besides him in a game like today. He’s come through for us in the tournament multiple times and we’ll just keep riding his back.”

Both offenses were on point throughout the game, as the Cougar offense notched 13 hits, including one home run, while Broomfield tallied 10, with two homers.

Following up on their momentum from the 10-7 win over top seeded Regis Jesuit last week, Cherokee Trail leapt ahead with two runs in the first and four more in the second to make it 6-0 early on.

Broomfield answered back with three in the top of the third, and a solo home run from Ryan Anderson in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to 6-4. The Cougars had the response, though, plating three runs in the bottom of the fifth to maintain their lead, 9-4, with two innings to play.

In the bottom of the sixth, Thomas Munch launched a solo shot to left field as part of a three-run inning to add some insurance to the Cougar ledger, 12-4. In the bottom half, the insurance turned out to be much needed, as the Eagles plated four runs, including three on a homer from Camden Ross, but Wilcox was able to finish off the complete game to get Cherokee Trail to the final day of the tournament.

(2) Legacy 4, (3) Chaparral 3

The Legacy Lightning have come all the way back.

With a 4-3 victory, No. 2 Legacy held on to defeat No. 3 Chaparral to advance to the final day of the 5A tournament. The second-highest seed has taken the harder route to the final day, after they lost on day one of the tournament to the team they will now face again, Cherokee Trail.

They also had to face some adversity in the final inning of today’s game, as they led 4-0 entering the seventh inning, before Chaparral scored three runs and had the tying and leading runs on second and third in the top half of the seventh.

“Our team chemistry is extraordinary,” Legacy head coach Ty Giordano said. “In all the years that I’ve coached, this is by far the team that’s had the best chemistry. When you have a team like that, they can have a tremendous amount of resiliency, and our team is very resilient. In that first game I think we came out a little bit timid, we weren’t our normal selves. I think since then they’ve learned their lesson.”

The Lightning got a tremendous performance from starting pitcher Conner Antczak, who went six strong innings before giving up a couple runs in the seventh. He struck out four.

“To a certain degree it’s a bit of a shame that he gave up a couple of runs there, because he was moving pretty well,” Giordano stated. “He’s been our best guy all year, and he just had a great day, it was just what we needed.”

The Legacy offense was able to capitalize on key opportunities, notching seven hits to plate their four runs. With the comeback in the seventh, Chaparral finished with eight hits on the day.

Both teams got runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings but weren’t able to push them across keeping it 0-0 into the third. Legacy broke the ice in the bottom of the third, as Kieran Gaffney drove in the first run of the game on an RBI single, making it 1-0 into the fourth.

The Wolverines had another golden scoring opportunity in the top of the fourth, getting the first two on, but a double play from Legacy eliminated the threat, keeping it 1-0 with three innings to play.

Legacy added on to their lead in the bottom of the fifth, as a walk and Gaffney double led to an RBI base hit from Derek Olsen, a wild pitch to score a run, and an RBI single from Blake Roberts to open a 4-0 lead for the Lightning with two frames remaining.

Conner Antczak continued to mow down opposing batters, striking out two more in the top of the sixth, to keep the Wolverines off the board.

The Wolverines came alive in the top of the seventh, as three consecutive doubles, the third a two-RBI shot to left center by Brody Sprinkle, made it 4-2. After recording the first out of the inning, Jesse Conrad delivered an RBI base knock to cut it to 4-3. Then with the two runners in scoring position, Gaffney was clutch once again, inducing a harmless pop out to clinch the game for the Lightning.