5A state softball: Columbine pays back Douglas County to win second title in four years

AURORA – It was a dream matchup and a dream result for the Columbine softball team Saturday afternoon.

The top-seeded Rebels got to face the only team that it hadn’t beaten during a near-perfect regular season — second-seeded Douglas County — with the Class 5A state championship on the line.

Columbine scored four times in the opening inning, added a few more on and then weathered a late comeback attempt by the Huskies with senior Araya Ogden on the mound in a 7-3 victory that earned the program its second state championship in the past four seasons and second all-time.

“There couldn’t have been a better opponent in the championship,” said Columbine coach Jim Santaniello, whose team finished the season 28-1 and a title to match the one it won in 2019. “We really enjoyed playing them both times and they are excellent competitors,” he added.

Columbine held the No. 1 ranking in 5A for most of the season and suffered just one defeat, which was a 2-0 road loss at Douglas County Oct. 4. The Huskies held the Rebels off the scoreboard in that contest, but it would be quite different in the rematch.

In the opening inning, Columbine generated as many hits (three) and four more runs than in the entire previous game against Douglas County as the Rebels got off to a flying start on a two-run home run by junior Eva Martinez (which caromed off the glove of the Huskies’ right fielder and went over the fence), followed just one batter later by a two-run shot by freshman Nina Vargas.

Vargas’ drive over the left field fence was her seventh of the season and it ended up as the game-winner.

“From the game before we played against Erie (a 3-2 semifinal win), that pitcher got me, so I was struggling a little,” Vargas admitted. “I was just looking for a pitch that I could stay through with and I did and hit a line drive that went out.”

It was the type of inning Santaniello has been used to seeing from his team, which seems to find a new hero all the time in close ballgames. It happened again in the fifth inning when Mari Shearn, Olivia Keiter and Addie Branch strung together back-to-back-to-back doubles to produce three more runs. Mason Abraham drove in Branch to become the fifth player with at least one RBI in the game.

“What I’ve loved so much about this team is the contributions will come from different players,” he said. “We don’t just live and die by a player or two. We have the utmost confidence in the whole lineup.”

Douglas County didn’t start senior Marina Tinari — who had throw seven shutout innings in the first matchup — then had to turn to her six batters into the game in relief.

Tinari handled the next 6 1/3 innings by allowing just three more runs, but the Huskies — who had the bats going in a big way by scoring 24 runs in their previous two contest, a 10-5 quarterfinal win over Grandview and 14-1 victory over 2021 state champion Legend in the semifinals — were in too big of a hole.

Douglas County’s task was especially tough given the form of Columbine senior pitcher Araya Ogden, who came into the game with a 20-1 record and a 1.03 ERA.

Ogden played shortstop as a freshman on the team that won the title in 2019, but she enjoyed being on the mound even more for the championship victory. She had a shutout going until two outs in the final inning, when some infield balls took some tricky hops and a double gave the Huskies some brief hope before a groundball to first base ended the game.

“As a shortstop (in 2019), I just did my part and if it came to me, it came to me,” Ogden said. “As a pitcher, it feels like more involvement and much more excitement. …That last out is so hard to get, I was like ‘Come on, just come to us.’ It’s so hard, but I knew my defense had my back.”

Ogden also thought that the loss to Douglas County — during which she allowed two runs in seven innings — served the Rebels well this time.

“We were having an off day, that was not us,” she said. “I think that loss helped us to bring the energy today.”

Santaniello endured the heartbreak of an 8-0 loss to Legend in last season’s state championship game and contrasted it with everything in between and the feeling of actually winning.

“The word that comes to mind is surreal,” he said. “I can’t believe I’m standing here. It’s such a long journey with summer workouts and all the ups and downs that go into it. To actually make it back here is amazing and I can’t even describe what it feels like to actually win it. It hasn’t hit me yet.”