5A baseball: Broomfield wins back-and-forth thriller over rival Legacy to claim title

DENVER – After a season filled with competition between 5A teams across the state, the final game of the 2022 5A baseball state tournament came down to two schools located just over four miles apart.

In a thrilling back-and-forth battle of Front Range League rivals, No. 5 seeded Broomfield defeated No. 2 Legacy, 7-6, to capture the 2022 Class 5A baseball championship.

“It’s almost an indescribable feeling, I’m really happy for our guys,” Broomfield head coach Kale Gilmore exclaimed. “There were 15 seniors in the program this year, and they’ve all put in a lot of effort, blood, sweat, and tears for this program. For them to finish what they started as a group like that is just the best feeling in the world.”

It is the sixth baseball championship for Broomfield in program history, but the first in the 5A classification. The last baseball title for the Eagles came as a 4A team back in 2012.

The seesaw game saw four lead changes, the last one coming on a two-RBI single from Broomfield in the top of the sixth. Both teams were dead even in hits, with nine apiece.

“We’ve just had this mentality that it’s the next man up, trying to keep the inning alive and have really quality at bats,” Gilmore said. “These guys just trust each other, they believe in each other, and they don’t want to let each other down.”

Broomfield wasted little time jumping ahead, as a walk, single, and three-run home run by Camden Ross made it 3-0 Eagles in the first. It was his team-leading 11th of the season.

“Camden is the heart and soul of our program, and he has been for four years” Gilmore said. “Nobody has put in more leadership into this program than him. For him to finish off his career this way was tremendous.”

Legacy got on the board in the bottom of the second, as they loaded up the bases with just one out. A run came in on an RBI fielder’s choice, but that was it to keep it 3-1 into the third.

They continued to hit in the bottom of the third, as an RBI groundout, followed by an RBI single from Clayton Shuck knotted it up at 3-3 with four innings to play.

The forward momentum continued for the Lightning in the fourth, as a leadoff triple turned into an RBI single from Brandon Sanchez to give Legacy their first lead. Later in the inning, Sanchez scored on an RBI single from Kieran Gaffney to open a 5-3 lead for LHS into the fifth.

Broomfield capitalized on Legacy miscues in the top of the fifth to tie the game back up, as a passed ball and infield error allowed a pair to score and keep the game tied at 5-5.

The back-and-forth game continued in the bottom of the fifth, as a lead off error from Broomfield led to a Braden Hollis RBI infield single to put the Lightning back ahead, 6-5, with two frames remaining.

The pendulum swung back in the Eagles’ direction in the top of the sixth, as with the bases loaded and two out, Gavin Speirs delivered a clutch two-RBI single through the right side to put Broomfield back up by one, 7-6. Noah Scott then went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth to keep the narrow lead into the final inning.

In the ninth, Legacy almost made another comeback, as the leadoff man got on, eventually getting to third on a sac bunt. Despite the tying run standing 90 feet from home, a bang-bang play on a ground ball to short ended the contest with the one-run difference.

For Legacy, it was a postseason full of comebacks, as they overcame a 6-1 deficit in the first game played today, defeating No. 7 Cherokee Trail 9-8. They also won three games in playback bracket after losing in the first round.

It was the first ever championship appearance in baseball for the Lightning, and they finish the season with a 27-4 record.

“All the credit in the world to Legacy,” Gilmore stated. “That was the scrappiest group of kids I’ve seen. To battle back from what they started in the tournament shows the character of their program as well. I’m really happy for our Broomfield community, to have two teams from the same town in the same championship game was really special.”