No. 7 Valor holds off No. 9 Arvada West with defensive gem

ARVADA — There was no hesitation in the throw from Valor shortstop Kaylie Whidden to home plate in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday.

Arvada West sophomore Hallie Thomas was the tying run at third base with one out and Valor holding on to a 4-3 lead. A hard hit by A-West senior Peyton Raley was scooped up by Whidden and she fired to the plate with Thomas sprinting toward home.

“Honestly, when you have an aggressive runner like that on third you know she is going to be taking off on anything not hit right back to the pitcher. That was the plan,” Whidden said about cutting Thomas — who had a pair of triples on the day — down at the plate.

Whidden’s throw was right on the money to catcher Kendall Ferguson, who made a sweeping tag on Thomas’s head-first slide. Thomas was called out on the play for the second out of the inning.

Valor sophomore Greta Uhlmann — took over in the circle for starting pitcher Olivia Schmidt in the seventh inning — forced a ground out to second base for the final out. The Eagles — No. 7 in the week’s CHSAANow.com Class 5A softball rankings — hung on for the 4-3 victory over No. 9 A-West.

It was the eighth straight victory for Valor (12-2, 2-0 in 5A Jeffco League).

“This is a huge win for us. Obviously that is a really talented Arvada West team,” Whidden said. “We really stuck together as a team. We rallied together, taking the bad moments and turning them into good moments.”

Valor led throughout, taking a 1-0 lead early on an RBI single by freshman Elizabeth Canales in the first inning. The Eagles scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning on RBIs by Schmidt and Whidden to take a 3-1 lead.

The lead grew to 4-1 in the top of the sixth inning. Valor was looking for a big inning with runners at the corners and no outs. However, A-West was able to turn a defensive gem of its own turning a double-play. Canales did score from third base to push it to a 3-run lead.

“Arvada West showed the way they were hitting, pitching and playing defense they weren’t going to give us much,” Valor coach Libby Noeth said. “We just focused on the little things.”

A-West’s offense got going in the bottom of the sixth inning with back-to-back-to-back doubles by Mac Ferguson, Kelsie Johnson and Morgan Farr. The Wildcats plated a pair of runs to cut the lead to 4-3, but stranded Farr in scoring position.

Thomas ripped her second triple of the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning off Uhlmann, but the sophomore was able to gather herself and get out of the jam thanks to the defensive play by Whidden.

“We have a great 1-2 punch between those two,” Noeth said of Schmidt and Uhlmann. “All season we’ve gone through one starting and one closing. They have each other’s back and complement each other so well. Their styles are so different.”

It was the first of three games in three days for the Eagles. Valor hosts Lakewood on Tuesday and No. 2 Chatfield on Wednesday.

“Chatfield is going to be another really good challenge for us,” Whidden said. “We are obviously a really talented team. We can go toe-to-toe with any team in the state. We are going to just keep grinding.”

Another huge game that looms for the Eagles is at No. 1 and undefeated Columbine (15-0, 2-0) on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

“That is the beauty of Jeffco. There is never an easy win,” Noeth said of what lies ahead. “We are going to have to fight for it. Nobody is going to hand us anything.”

A-West (12-7, 1-2) will attempt to regroup after two close conference losses in less than a week. The Wildcats were edged by Columbine 9-7 in their league opener on Sept. 14.

The Wildcats are on the road against Bear Creek on Wednesday, Sept. 21.